Oh Yeah Totally Normal
by Austin and Ally Go 1 Direction
Summary: Hi. I'm Austin Moon. I've got the looks, the brains, and did I mention that my uncle is Ethan Hunt, and that I'm one of IMF's top agents? No? Well, I am. I've faced nuclear war, escaped from a Russian prison in Siberia, and I graduated from Oxford at 14. But nothing could have prepared me for my next mission, or my next cover. Highschool. Great. Auslly. (I don't own AaA!)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! Here is a new idea I had in my head. I just want to see what kind of a response I get. If it's good, I'll keep working on it. If not, I'll just delete it. Anyways, this is the prologue. I hope you guys like! And if you want me to continue, Please review!**

"You have _got _to be kidding me."

I stare at the suburban family home in front of me, sure that this is some kind of bad joke. My uncle Ethan sighed and handed me a box. I peeked in and saw that it was my M-16's and some left over bomb parts I like to tinker with. I watch as he pickes up one of our seven computer screens.

"Sorry Austin, but this is it. I know it's not like the flat that you're used to during missions but-"

"Not like? This place is from a different planet!" I exclaim. "I'm _me, _not my parents!"

We carry the stuff inside the family house, which has already been decked out with 'homey' furniture by IMF's decoy group. Mt uncle and I are supposed to be a happy family. My cover is that I moved in with my uncle for the year from New York. I roll up the sleeves on my shirt, already sweltering in the Miami heat.

My uncle places the computer with a bunch of Benji's stuff. I drop the box of guns underneath the stairs, our momentary weapons room.

"I just don't understand why I have to go to _school," _ I say the word with distaste, crinkling my nose. "One of the reasons I work for you guys is so that I don't have to go back. Besides. I already graded from Oxford top of my class, _without _cheating," I add.

I actually graduated from oxford when I was fourteen, perfect marks in everything. I didn't cheat, but for some reason everyone in my family thinks I must have. Even my own mom doesn't think I'm smart enough to do that.

"Come on Austin. It's just a cover. You can even flunk if you really want," He smirks at me, knowing he's got me pinned. I can't stand the idea of getting lower than 95% on anything, and even then I cringe when I get my papers back.

I groan as my uncle waves off the moving van, and closes the front door. "After all, you are still technically a senior."

I roll my eyes. "I can't believe you just played the seventeen card."

He smiles at me, as he starts to unpack the samurai swords. I walk over and close the blinds in case someone sees. That would blow our cover right away. I help him place the swords away.

"Who's joining us here?" I ask my uncle as he unties the knot on one of the crates. He doesn't look up as he responds.

"The usual. Luther, Benji, William, and you friend Dezmond." He replies. I roll my eyes. He always calls Dez by his full name.

"William?" I ask confused. He looks up briefly.

"Agent Brandt."

"Oh."

I go up to my 'room' and open the door slowly. It's pretty 'normal teenager' looking, with yellow walls, a queen sized bed, and a closet. A dresser site in one corner. I hear my uncle come up behind me.

"Pretty average eh?" I nod towards what I'll be forced to sleep in for the next few months. Ethan rolls his eyes.

"If you call this normal," He walks over to my closet and taps on the back wall. It slides open just as I figured it would.

"The closet? Really? Isn't that a little cliche?" I can't help but smirk. My uncle shoots me a coy grin.

"Well, you are one of IMF's top agents. Who also should technically still be in high school," He says. I roll my eyes.

"Whatever. When will Dez be here?" I ask.

"Probably in fifteen minutes. Apparently he wouldn't stop pestering Benji for the cam." My uncle tells me. I can't help but chuckle. Dez is also a techy, kind of like my dad and Benji. He's Benji's nephew, but Benji doesn't trust him with anything. I don't blame him though. Wherever Dez goes, destruction tends to follow.

"Oh yeah," My uncle tells me as he starts to leave, "You'll be at the school by yourself. Benji is going to need Dez here for training."

I moan and collapse onto my bed. Great. Now I was going to have to go to the most inhumane place on earth, WITHOUT my best friend. I sigh as I sit up and reach over to the nightstand. I open the drawer, and sure enough, there's a file there. I pull it out and flip through it.

Several paintings catch my eye, and I groan. Great. Not only did I have to go to frikkin high school, but I also have to babysit some paintings. Really? _This _was the job that no other agent could do? I'm going to kill my uncle next chance I get.

I sit up as I hear the doorbell ring, telling me that the others are here. I sigh.

Mission commenced.


	2. Chapter 2

I can't help but groan as my alarm clock goes off at six. I moan, and bury my head deeper in the covers. My arm shoots out, and for someone with a high accuracy rate when shooting a projectile, it takes me forever to find the snooze button. As soon as the peace settles back into my room, I let out a sigh of relief.

Until I hear the floor creak.

Ten years of training kick in as my senses go on hyper alert. I pick up on another shallow breathing pattern in the room, and I feel the presence of another being. As they are about three feet from my bed, I jump up, quicker than they would have expected. I throw my covers over top of them, pulling a sword from under my bed with my right hand, and a gun from under my pillow with my left.

I pounce on the struggling form on my floor, locking them with my legs, positioning the gun at their temple and the sword at their throat. I click the safety off.

"Good morning Dez," I sigh as I stand up, re-doin the safety on my gun. I watch my best friend try and maneuver out of the sheets. I finally sigh at how pathetic he looks, and pull the covers off him. His bright orange hair comes first, his funky colored. clothes second. I sigh at him.

"And you wonder why they won't let you do field work," I can't help but smirk. Dez rolls his eyes as he gets up.

"I almost had you," I hear him mutter, causing me to chuckle. I clasp his shoulder.

"Sure you did Dez. Sure you did."

He rolls his eyes, before taking a seat on my bed. I hop in the shower, and am out in five minutes to see Dez playing around with some camera. He starts to talk as I slip into the clothes that my uncle has deemed 'teen worthy.'

"Excited?" He asks as I slide into a plain red shirt. I pause and look at him.

"Oh yeah. I'm exctatic," I tell him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Being Dez though, he doesn't pick up on it.

"You're so lucky that you get to go to school! I haven't been since second grade, when Harry Martin poured macaroni and cheese into my binder," Dez frowns at the memory. I hold back a chuckle.

"Well, s'pose I should get ready," I say, standing up, not bothering to make up my bed. Hey, If I have to be a real teenager, I might as well act the part.

"Kay. See you after school. I have to go find My pet kangaroo," Dez tells me, before slipping out the door. That guy was a genius, but I sometimes wonder if he's mentally unstable. If you know what I mean.

I stand up and stretch, scooping up my phone as I do. Dez gave it to me a few months ago. And let's just say, I _still _haven't figured out all the functions yet.

I scroll through my new twitter account that my uncle made for me last night, as well as the facebook page that Benji put up, with a bunch of fake photos. I have to say, for a last minute job, they did pretty good. I then flip through my youtube account (This one is actually mine) and see that one of my subscriptions uploaded.

A smile breaks across my face. See, even though I'm fighting for my life half the time, I absolutely love music and dancing. My favourite movie is (Don't laugh) Teen Beach Movie. I know it's a Disney little kids movie, but the dancing is amazing! And I'm pretty sure that I know every single word to the soundtrack. I made Dez watch it with me opening night and all. Ross Lynch sure knows how to dance.

Anyways, I see that it's a new tutorial for their dance Cruising for a Bruising. I smile and let out a whoop. That's definitely my favourite song, and I can't wait to learn the dance. Because dancing is NOT gay. It even keeps me in shape.

I put it onto the watch later list, and then hop into the shower. I mentally go over everything else that I read in the file last night. Apparently this school is a fine arts school (Which means I get a singing, dancing, AND acting class because it's mandatory!) so they also get free passes to the Hale museum down the street.

As in _The _Hale Museum.

I've been to it once before, and it's spectacular. The Louvre has nothing on it. The Henley security seems weak in comparison.

And the paintings.

I'm not much into art myself. But my mom is the head of IMF's decore department for a reason. She can spot a fake vase from a mile a way. One look at a painting, and she can tell you if it's a Monet, or a Vermeer. She can name the year it was painted, as well as the name to the finest detail.

So, yeah. You could say that I appreciate art. My mom made sure of that.

There is one painting that I'm supposed to watch, a Vermeer. Or THE Vermeer in particular. As in The Concert, painted in 1664 with oil. Stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, it returned mysteriously three years ago. It was said to be a miracle, and the painting was moved to the Hale. But IMF feels differently. They just found it too suspiscious. And I can't say that I blame them. It was the most valuable unrecovered painting. To have it just returned is wrong. Way wrong.

Anyways, the school spends quite a fair amount of time there, giving me open eyes to the painting. Last month, a card was found tucked into the paintings frame. The whole state pretty much went into lock down. I was too busy escaping from a tomb in Egypt at the time, but I heard it was crazy. It was a warning, to watch our backs. That is why IMF feels we need an agent here. For when things get rough.

I turn off the water, and finish getting ready. I have to admit, I'm kind of nervous. I eventually just settle for a white T-shirt, black jeans, and my leather jacket. I hook some of my chains to mywallet, and attach them to my pants. I decide for more of a retro look today, and hook my aviaters onto my shirt. I give my hair a shake, a decide that I look decent.

_Almost like Ross Lynch when he's dressed as a Greaser, _I smile to myself. I slid into my brown Chuck Taylors, leaving my hair tousled perfectly. I slide my phone into my back pocket, and pick up my backpack... which isn't really a backpack.

It hides several guns, and a couple of knives (For emergencies only, as my Uncle insists) One of Benji's high tech laptops, a bag of Dez's spy cams, and some basic supplies. Three days rations, and a change of clothes. You can never be too sure in my line of work.

I walk downstairs, re-running over the map of the school in my head which I memorized last night. I pick up an apple from the table and bite into it, as Ethan looks up from the end. He has goggles on, and is wearing a special glove. I smirk at him.

"You really trust that tech after Dubai?" I laugh remembering my flailing Uncle. He makes a face at me.

"I trust it after I have tinkered with it," He mutters and I shake my head. He looks up. "Don't cause trouble on your first day, got it?"

I nod. "Is the principle informed about the situation?"

This time Ethan nods. "Sworn to secrecy, but if you need to make anything simpler, go talk to him." I finish my apple, and toss the core into our incinerater. "You taking the convertable?"

"No," I shake my head. "Thought I'd take the T-bird. Go a little retro."

"The '76?"

"'69," I tell him. He tosses me the keys. "See you later," I tell him as I head down to the garage. I hear him shout his goodbye.

Let's get something a little straight here. Our house LOOKS like a normal house, but it's anything but. There are two levels, an attic as well as a basement. There is also an underground garage, that is accessed through the normal garage. Hidden cameras are everywhere, and let's just say that the cute little garden gnomes, are anything but.

Even though I should technically still have my Learners, my dad pulled a few strings, seeing as how I outsmarted Interpol in a car chase when I was twelve. We haven't been on the bestest terms since (I was undercover) but we kind of get along now. Kind of.

I pull the car out, and head with ease to school. The parkinglot is already filling up as I pull in, and the sun is shining clearly. A few kids stop and stare at the vehicle, and I can't help but smirk. I pull my car into a nice shaded spot, close to the doors and everything. I take a deep breath, and step out of the car.

Immediately all eyes are on me. I had placed my aviaters on in the car, and I adjust them as I get out. I swing one strap of my backpack onto my shoulder, and close the door with grace. I get several flirty waves from nearby girls. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

"Doofus, you're in my spot."

I turn slowly to the voice, and see that it belongs to a boy about my height. He has tanned skin, dark hair, and green eyes. I can instantly tell from the way that he's built, that he's a quarterback.

"I'm sorry," I can't help but smirk, "But your name's not on the spot, so why don't you go parl over there," I point to the far corner. I can tell that he's about to say something back, when another voice rings out.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Centineo?"

I turn and catch a tall, brown-haired guy in my peripherals. The kid backs off. "No Mr. Thachuk," He slinks off. I smirk and turn to the teacher.

"Welcome to Marino High," He smiles. "Sorry about Dallas. I'm Mr. Thachuk, Vice Principle. Feel free to come to me if you have any questions Mr..."

"Moon," I supply him. I see his eyes go wide slightly.

"Ah, yes. Mr. Moon," He smiles like he's in on a big secret. I guess he kind of is. "I suppose that I'll be seeing you around," He smiles, then is gone. I take a deep breath, before making my way inside.

All I can say is, wow. It's like they hired an architect for this school. The arches dazzle me, but I don't show it, because everyone is looking at me. I play it cool. I already have two dozen new numbers before I'm even through the front doors. The girls are all throwing smiles at me, and the guys are eyeing me like I'm new competetion that they know they can't beat.

I stride confidently through the doors, and am met by three gorgeous girls. I can tell from they're outfits that they're cheerleaders.

"Hi," A girl with dark skin, big eyes, and black hair smiles at me. "I'm Kira, head cheerleader. Welcome to Marino," She smiles. I smile back. "This is Cassidy and Brooke."

Cassidy has ice blue eyes, and platinum blonde hair. Brooke has blonde hair as well, but pretty brown eyes instead. They both give flirtatious giggles.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all," I flash my thousand-watt smile and they kind of swoon.

"Want to join us for lunch?" Brooke plays with a lock of her hair. I smile again.

"I'd love to ladies. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get ready for class." I leave them in a fit of giggles as I make my way through the halls. I get to the office, and instead of ringing the bell, I tap my knuckles on the counter. A middle aged lady with blond curls looks up.

"How may I heelp you?" She smiles at me, and I raise my eyebrows.

"What happened to..." I trail off as I read the name on the desk. "Ms. Synthia?"

My mom smiles. "You must be referring to Mrs. Mart. I'm Ms. Synthia. She quit her job for uncertain circumstances yesterday. I'll be here till the end of the year."

"Great," I groan. "_Ms. Synthia."_

She rolls her eyes, but sends me her best, Do-NOT-do-anything-stupid-young-man-or-you-will-be -grounded-for-an-eternity look. I skeedaddle my way into Mr. Lea's office rather fast.

"Hello Mr. Moon,"He says as he looks up. "Pleasure to meet you," He tells me. I smile back.

"Thank you Mr. Lea. It's a pleasure to be here despite the... circumstances," I say, not sure how well informed he is. He nods.

"Agreed Mr. Moon," He hands me a piece of paper. "This is your schedule. We set your classes up so that the majority of your time will be spent at the Hale."

I read over my schedule. Academics till lunch, other courses afterwards. I groan internally, but Mr. Lea hears it. He quirks an eyebrow at me, and I smile apologetically.

"Sorry, it's just, I remembered that this is a fine arts school, and that the school day ends at five," I say sheepishly. "It's been three years, so i need to get used to it again."

He chuckles. "Of course. I'll leave you to it then," He dismisses me. As I walk out the doors, I skin my schedule again. Math, English, Physics, History and P.E. first. Then lunch. Afterwards I have Dance, Drama, Music, and Art.

I find my locker, and realize that I forgot to get my combo from the principle. I sigh, but instead of walking all the way back to the office, I pull out my cellphone and hold it behing the lock. I hear it magnetically click, and I shove my cell back into my pocket, before opening the lock nonchalantly. Just as Mr. Lea rounds the corner.

"Austin! You forgot your-" He stops as he sees that my locker is already open. I fight back a smirk. "Um... pen. You forgot you pen," He pulle the pen out from behind his ear and gives it to me. That's when I smirk slightly. He hurries away.

The bell rings as I make my way to Math. I walk into the classroom, and look for an empty seat. I see one in the back of the class, and head there. I drop my stuff, and collapse into it.

For the sake of secrecy, the teachers think I'm a normal student. Ms. Dodds, a scary looking bat-like teacher walks into the room. I swear she has enough wrinkles to make Rip Van Wrinkle jealous.

She walks into the classroom, and immediately turns to the board, writing down equations. I was used to this, it was how all the profs at Oxford taught. After five minutes, she turns around, and her eyes fall on me.

"You," She opints. Hey, I thought pointing was rude. "As the new student, please introduce yourself."

I stand up, and all eyes are on me. I smile at everyone. "What'sup? I'm Austin Moon, and as it's so painfully obvious," I gesture to the teachre, "I'm new."

Ms. Dodds scowls at me. "Alright, Smart Aleck. Why don't you solve the problem then. All newbies get a chance," She gestures to a side board I hadn't noticed. It's covered in one giant equation, leaving no room for work. Almost everyone in the room gives me a sympathetic look. Judges from the smudges, this question has been up here for years with no one solving it. I finish quickly scanning it, before sitting down.

"Give up already?" She smiles evilly.

"7.9 to the power of 6.4 seventh rooted."

"What?" She looks at me. I repeat my answer.

"That's the answer to your question. You know, the one that I just figured out in my head," I throw in a bit of attitude. She clues in, looks at the board, then gapes at me.

"But... how, answer-" I smirk.

"Are we going to move on with the lesson now?"

The rest of class is boring. English is the same. I leanred all this stuff when I was like, nine. In physics I actually outsmart the teacher, and everyone now knows me as not only the hot new kid, but also the genius new kid.

It helps to have already graduated from Oxford.

In History we start to learn about the pyramids in Egypt, and I have to bite my tongue not to shout out that the map of the pyramids is a phony. I should know. It got me lost down there for two days last year. It was not a fun trip.

P. E. was fun, but I have that kid Dallas in my class. He wasn't all too impressed that I could throw the football faster than he could. Seeing as I had to throw a grenade twice as fast, it wasn't that much of an accomplishment for me.

I enter the cafeteria at lunch. Kids are everywhere, And I make my way over to the line. I grab a tray and a hamburger, and make my way over to the soda fountain. When I get there, a brunette is there, having issues with the 7up button.

"Here," I say, taking her cup from her. I fiddle with the button, and in a second, the foamy drink fills the cup. I hand it back to her, and she takes it quietly, letting her hair fall into her face. I don't know what it is, but I'm kind of intrigued by her.

"I'm Austin," I tell her. As she peeks through her hair, I see her bigg brown eyes.

"Ally," She mumbles. She runs to the other side of the cafeteria before I can get anything else out of her. I stare after her curiously. Something about her was... intriguing.

"Hey Austin," Kira walks up behind me. I turn and smile at her. "How's your first day going?"

I smile at her. "Great. Hey, do you know who that girl was?" I ask. She looks over to the brunette.

"Her? Pfft. Why would you care? She's just some of the school's trash. The 411 is that she's a nerd. Avoid her like the plague," Kira lets out a laugh. "She'll have you down the social ladder faster than you can say Timbuktu."

I frown slightly, but decide to take her advice. I mean, I can't not be popular, right? Kira speaks up again.

"But if you really want to know," She started as though everything was Austin's fault, "The Dork is Ally. Ally Dawson."

**HEY! Just want to say Thank You for everyone for reviewing, and I hope you liked this chapter! More Auslly on the way, and JSYK, The Concert is a real Vermeer, that was stolen in 1990. It still hasn't been recovered to this day, but for the purposes of this FANfiction, it has been ;) Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

So, don't get me wrong or anything. I'm not a person who judges people by a label, or someone who won't talk to people because of that label. I am friends with Dez. I myself am somewhat a nerd (For the record, you kind of have to be in order to graduate from Oxford at fourteen) But this is high school. As in, Swirlieville, Locker Mash ups, and dumpster diving.

I might be able to speak two dozen languages fluently. I've blown up a train (While being on it), Escaped from Siberia, seduced a Russian interrogater (Now that was an interesting story...) and I've texted Korean nuclear launch codes to Dez. And let's not forget my physical critique. But nothing has ever seemed more terrifying than high school.

Which is why instead of following the Ally girl over to her table, i follow Kira.

As I make myself comfortable beside her, she introduces me to a couple of her friends. Ethan is the Basketball ccaptain, Trent the soccer one. And of course, there's Dallas, the quarterback. My phone buzzes, and I check subtly over my shoulder before reading the text.

_School horrendous?_

I roll my eyes and text my uncle back. _You have no idea._

I put my phone away, and try to focus on the group's conversation. Let's just say that I never knew that meal conversations could be this breezy. Normally I'm being quized on the best gun to use to carry out an assassination, or how to make a bomb with my car.

"My new purse is totally Gucci!" Cassidy squeals in my ear. I can't help the wince.

"No ways! It's, like, tots adorbs!" Kira squeals back. Kira has the like syndrome unfortunately...

"So, do you play any sports?" Ethan asks me.

"I dunno. I've never really tried out for any," I admit. I don't mention it's because I'm too busy saving the world half of the time.

'Too bad. You should totally try out for football," Trent tells me. I smile at him, and see Dallas fuming in his seat with the corner of my eye.

"Maybe I will," I smile.

Alright. So I've officially decided that cafteria Mac 'n cheese is worst than the petrified prison food I ate in Slovakia. It's like, designed to trigger your gag reflex of something. No joke. It's disgusting. Absolutely intolerable.

In other words: My uncle is going to owe me big time for this torture.

The rest of lunch passes pretty fast, and I find myself towards the Drama studio. Turns out that they combine dance drama and music into one three hour class, and then Art class is an hour and a half.

The room is full when I get there, and the bell goes off. I take a seat in the back, scanning the area out of habit. Kira and her gang is all in my class, as well as that Ally girl. My eyes linger on her a minute longer. She's talking to a short Latina.

"Attention class," A feminine voice booms out. I turn to see a younger woman with red hair and green eyes. "My name is Ms. Gables, and I'll be your dance, drama, and music teacher this year. This first hour shall be brainstorming the school musical production, which this class shall be putting on."

My mind immediately flashes to TBM. My mind starts going over the possibilities. Some of it would be hard to do, but we could probably cut certain seens. And it's retro. It's gotta be a winner.

Cassidy raises her hand. "What about Grease?"

"A good story," Mrs. Gables starts, "But overdone."

"West Side Story?" A boy in the back pipes up.

The teacher shakes her head. "We can't tolerate racism."

"High School Musical!" A girl squeals in the back. Everyone rolls their eyes, and the teacher doesn't even bother to respond.

"What about Hairspray?" Dallas asks. "I could totally play Link," He strikes up what he must think is a sexy pose. I scoff, and all eyes turn to me.

"Do you have a suggestion Mr..." The teacher looks at her clipboard, "Moon?"

"Don't shoot it down," I prep them, "But I think that we should totally do Teen Beach Movie. They have the singing, the dancing, and it's retro, so you can't go wrong."

Dallas scoffs, but the majority of the class nod, thinking it over. Several girls start squealing about Ross Lynch. "That is definitely a likelyhood," Mrs. Gables nods in approval.

"I don,t see what's wrong with Hairspray," Dallas mutters, but it doesn't matter, the entire girl population in the room is squealing for TBM, and I smirk to myself in satisfaction. Mrs. Gables surivets the scene, before giving a final nod.

"Looks like Disney's Teen Beach Movie it is," Mrs. Gables consents. I can't help the smirk that rolls across my features, and Dallas rolls his eyes, but I can see that he's fuming. "Today's first part shall be watching the movie. Afterwards we'll do tryouts for certain parts, and we'll choose our first musical number to know."

As she goes to her computer to put it on, Kira turns to me. "You're so genius," She gushes to me.

"Tots genius," Cassidy and Brooke but in. I smirk. They have no idea.

"You could totally play Brady," Kira flips her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously, "You totally look like Ross Lynch," She giggles, "Maybe even cuter."

"Ttotally cuter," Brooke gushes.

"Tots adorbs," Cassidy smiles at me.

I chuckle, but thankfully I'm saved from answering by the movie starting. I avert my attention to the screen, a smile already forming on my face. A couple like Dallas and Ethan pull out their phones to start texting, but the majority are watching the screen with earnest. I smile as they surf onto the screen.

I get enraptured by the ,movie. I find me feet stepping along to Oxygen, and I sing quietly to every single word. It's like that for every musical number, and I find myself belting out to Like Me. I blush, but Kira just giggles beside me. At. certain parts in the lighthouse she actually squeals and buries her head into my arm. I fight my urge to shrug her off. I have to fit in, I have to fit in, I have to fit in...

I can't help it. I tell her I have to use the washroom. She disintagles herself from me, and I run out of the room. I mentally apologize for running out of TBM, but you have got to understand. I thought I was going to pass out from Ira's perfume. I'm going to have to tell my uncle about that tactic.

I return after two minutes of standing in the hall, and sit a bit farther away from Kira. As the movie ends, I find myself wishing that Mrs. Gables would hit replay. But unfortunately, she doesn't. As the lights flicked on, I squint.

"Okey-doke class. Now that you've seen the movie, we're going to do tryouts. For most is the parts, we'll have normal tryouts, but for Brady, Mack, Tanner, and Lela, we're going to be doing something a bit different," The teacher smiles mischeviously.

"Define different," Trent asks warily. The teacher smiles, and it's one of those _run-and-hide-while-you-still-can _smiles.

"We'll, we just watched the movie. So I want to see who can reenact a dance the best. After all, the lead roles are the biggest parts, so they have to be the fastest learners."

"What?" Dallas looks up. "But I'm playing Brady."

"We'll see Mr. Centineo," Mrs. Gables says. "Let's start for the roll of Mack. Can we get a line up of girls here please?"

Kira and three others girls line up. Mrs. Gables hands them a sheet of paper. "These are the lyrics to the surfs up finale. Ms. Patterson, you're up first."

I have to look away as the first three girls go. Not only can't they dance, but they can't sing either. Kira goes last, and she's OK. She managed to hit all the notes at least, but her dancing was only satisfactory. She needs to learn to pump out her chest more when she brings it to the front. And her timing was off when she jerked.

"Alright!". Thank you ladies," Mrs. Gables smiles as she writes something down on her list. "Brady next!"

I stand up, and go to the end of the line. Dallas is first, and then there are two other jocks I don't know between us. Mrs. Gables hands out the sheets, and I frown slightly. I was hoping that we would get Surf's up too, since I already know that dance. Instead we have cruising for a bruising. It should be OK though. I know the lyrics, and most of the moves. It's just getting them together that I worry about.

Dallas goes first. His voice is amateur, but his dancing is pretty good. His timing is off, but for someone who's never danced this song before, it's pretty good. He gets sloppy with the chair.

He takes a break as the recording of the girls part comes on. He stops there, claiming that he can't remember the rest. The other jocks are OK, but I don't think that they'll get the part. This is truly between me and Dallas.

As the last jock comes off, I make my way to center stage. I'm running the video through my head, over and over. I had donned my leather jacket, and I pop the collar. I had re-tied my Chuck Taylors before this, and my aviaters are ready to go. I make sure that the chair is in a reasonable spot, before I nod to Mrs. Gables.

The familiar beat thrums through the speakers. and I stretch my arms, nod my head, and rub my hands together in anticipation.

"You better run, run, run, 'Cause here we come," I sing, my voice echoing to the class. I twist like Ross does. "Revving our engines under the sun, We're cruising, for a bruising."

My feet stumble a bit with the complicated move, but I manage to save it at the last second. My voice wobbled slightly, and I mentally preparer myself better. "We're keeping it cool, smooth and steady," I do my favourite snapping move with a lot more oomph. I'm rewarded with a couple of holovers from the crowd. "Slicked back hair, yeah, things are getting heavy!"

Several girls actually squeal as I hip thrust. I make a mental note though, because I note that in the movie it's not Ross's hips that move, but his knees. I'll have to watch the tutorial for that later.

"We're cruising," I move my hand in front of me, a devilish smirk on my features, "For a bruising. Got these two wheels, and an open road. Wrapped in leather ready to go."

I pop my collar, before placing my foot on the chair in front of me. "Don't stop, stop the music. We go fast, like we're cruising. We do anything we want. Any time we want, oh, oh yea. Oh, oh, yeah!" I stand on the chair and snap my fingers, taking a millisecond to catch my breath. I focus. This is the hardest part. I flip my chair over, and land, hands splayed out.

"We just ride, ride, ride all day, we're not going to live, any other way."

I go to run off the stage as the girls voices play, but instead of that, the music is turned off. I turn to the teacher, slightly out of breath.

"Well, I think we have our Brady," She smiles at me and I grin like a cheshire cat.

"Yes!" I throw my hands in the air, and the audience claps. Dallas scowls and sinks deeper in his chair, but it's hard to hear him over everyone else.

"Calm down class!" She yells. As I sit down in my seat, she does the auditions for Tanner and Lela. Everyone is ok, but not much better than that. "Alright," Mrs. Gables finally turns to us after the last girl takes her seat. "So you all know our Brady," She says and I smile, "And we'll have Kira Starr as our Mack! Mr. Centineo, and Ms. Walters, you are our Tanner and Lela. Congratulations everyone. I'll leave you guys to get to know eachother more, while everyone else I would like to see for filler parts!"

The rest of the class flock to her, as Kira and Cassidy come to sit by us. Dallas comes over begrudingly.

"OMG Austin, you are so hot!" Cassidy squeals. Kira shoot her a look, then turn to me with a blinding smile.

"She's right! Where did you learn to dance like that?" She asks me. I contemplating telling her that dancing is similar to a form of jujitsu I know, but instead I don't.

"Dunno. I've always had a knack for dancing I guess."

"Alright class!" Mrs. Gables gets our attention again. "Next we need to know what muscial number we should learn first."

"What about Surf Crazy?" Dallas pipes up. I roll my eyes. Of course.

"No, I liked Like Me the best," Brooke says, and she gets a few supportive nods. One of the jocks poses one.

"I think Cruising for a Bruising. It's definitely the hardest song. We should do hardest first, and least hardest last. You know what I'm saying?" It makes since. I recognize him now as one of the other kids who tried out for the roll of Brady.

"Do we have a consensus on this?" Mrs. Gables turns to the rest of us. We nod. It does make sense actually.

"Wait, before we start," Kira asks, "What is everyone's rolls? Just so we know."

"Well," Mrs. Gables starts, "Giggles will be played by Brooke, Seacat by Trent. Butchy shall be portrayed by Ethan, and Cheechee by Trish. Everyone else has been divided into either the Biker or the surfer category, with Connor being Austin's understudy, and Ally being Kira's. Any questions?"

"Um yeah," Kira looks confused. "Why would the Dork be my understudy?"

Mrs. Gables looks disaprovingly at Kira. "_Ally _has a lot of Talent, and will do that roll much good, Ms. Starr. Now, onto class!"

The rest of class passes in a flash. Connor is this really cool guy who's obssessed with comic books, but is nerdy at all. He's really cool, and we get along really well. We go over the lyrics, although I already have them memorized. We don't really work on the actual dancing today, but I pick up an electric guitar.

I take out my phone and replay the videa of cruising for a bruising over and over, picking the differnet notes out. I sling the red guitar nto my should, and turn the amp on low. I trial and error for the first few minutes, until I have a pretty decent guitar solo, almost perfect to the origianl. I smile to myself. I haven't been able to play much recently, and it was nice having the guitar in my hands again. I hardly even notice when the bell goes off.

"Mr. Moon, may I see you for a moment please?" Mrs. Gables asks me. I nod and wait till everyone is out.

"What do you need?" I ask her. She looks up from her paperwork.

"I just wanted to officially invite you to Marino High. You seem like a bright student, and it will be a pleasure working with you in the future."

"Thank you," I smile genuinly at her. Ok, so maybe I am a bit of a suck up and teachers pet when it comes to school. So what.

"I noticed that you were playing with the guitar. If you want to bring your own musical instruments, you may do that as well, and store them here." She tells me. I smile.

"Sounds great. Thanks again Mrs. Gables," I tell her, shouldering my pack. She waves as I run outside. I catch up to Kira.

"Hey Austin," She smiles when she sees me. I smile back.

"Hey Kira, do we just walk over to the Hale for class?"

She nods. "We meet in the foyer there, just look for the tall bald teacher and you're all good," She laughs. "Do you want to walk there with us?" She motions to her group.

I shake my head. "Thanks, but I have to drop by the office first to pick up my pass. I'll see you guys there," I tell her. She smiles, then leaves. I walk into the office as the warning bell goes off. My mom looks up from the computer.

"Hello, how may I help you?" She smiles at me. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.

"I came for my Hale pass. I have art next and I'm kind of late," I say sheepishly. She tuts, and this time I can't help the eye roll. She opens one of the drawers, but I notice her hand slip into her bag. I watch as she pulls a card out of her purse, and with practiced skill, she makes it look like she pulled it off the top of the card pile in the drawer. She hands it to me.

"There you go," She smiles at me. I take a closer look, then tap the screen. Sure enough, it changes into a pass for the Louvre. Another tap and I have access to the Pentagon. I raise my eyebrows at my mom as I change it back to the Hale setting.

"Master Key?" I ask, now realizing that the screen is actually a computer, just really well designed.

"Dez's protoype. He figured you might find a use for it with this mission," She tells me, her eyes never leaving the screen. I smirk and put it in my pocket. "He configured it with your DNA, so only you can change the settings."

I thank her, before heading out. As I walk out the school doors, I blink from the sunlight. I decide just to walk, seeing how it is literally a block away.

Kay, so have you ever had a moment where you see something and it's breath taking? Not something silly, but something so gorgeous and grande that you just can't stop your jaw from hitting the floor? No wonder why the Hale has such extreme security measures. This place was amazing.

I walk into the looby, and the faint smell of varnish that all museums have reaches me. I can't help but smile and wonder if my mom has been here yet. Then again, alcholics shouldn't go to liquor stores, so it's probably best if my mom doesn't come. We wouldn't be able to get her to leave.

At the security check point, I show my Ceit card to the lady. She scans it, and for an agonizing long second, I'm terrified that Dez did something wrong and that it won't work. After an intense moment, the lady hands the card back. I take it and pocket it. She gestures for me to walk through the metal detectors. I sigh in relief.

I walk through, and no alarms go off. I hand my backpack to a guard for pulls out my gun disguised as a bottle of Axe, and I don't stop cringing until he puts it back. Thank goodness he didn't take the cap off. He pulls out a few knives disguised as pens and combs (Hey, my hair doesn't stay perfect by magic) as well as a bad of goldfish. Thankfully he doesn't eat one, because inside the baked goods are Dez's new spy cameras. He looks through all my food, and I shrug. He rolls his eyes and puts everything back.

"You're clean," He declares, handing me back my bag. I walk farther into the foyer after nodding to him. Sure enough, I spot a tall bald guy in the back corner by some benches. I make my way over there to see my class. The man who also has a pair of spectacles perched on his bird like nose, stares at me.

"You must be Mr. Moon," He tells me. "I'm Mr. Derk." He turns back to the rest of class. "Today for art we will just have an examination day, give you all some inspiration for your next art project. No tomfoolery!" He points to Connor and Ethan. They chuckle awkwardly and turn red. I raise my eyebrows. I wonder what that is about.

We all get up and go our seperate ways. I slide into a side hallway, before Kira and her gang attack me. As I walk from the sculpture section, I pretend to itch my ear, actually pushing a bug deep into my canal.

"Can you hear me Dez?" I speak softly, the wire built into my back molar connecting with the bug.

"Loud and clear buddy!" I hear Dez shout and I wince.

"Dude, don't shout," I tell him as I pretend to take an interest in a Donatello. "You in?"

"Dude, I've been in since lunch time. I've already got this place mapped. There's several blind spots that I need you to cover. Two in the Monet section, one close to where you are right now, and another by a Da Vinci."

"Where's the one by me?" I ask, reading the caption by the Donatello.

"To your left. See the security camera in the right corner? It's blind spot is covered by one beside the naked dude, but I can't see behind that statue."

I scan the room casually, and see the camera in the right corner. I turn to my left and see the camera that Dez is referring to.

"Dude, that 'naked dude' is a Michelangelo! That's _The _David," I roll my eyes at my Best friends obtusness. I can pretty much hear Dez roll his eyes.

"Whatever. I need a camera by that statues right arm."

I make my way over there casually. I pull the fishy crackers out of my back pack. And open them. I pop one into my mouth, but I don't chew. I carefully break away the orange cracker, leaving a cold metal disk like thingy on my tongue. I reach up and pretend to wipe crumbs off my mouth, catching it onto the tip of my finger. I pretend to trip as I walk closer to it, My hand justting out to catch my balance. I right myself, and walk away.

"That good buddy?"

"Perfect. Next one is by the Da Vinci," He tells me as I leave the statues. We spend the next half an hour strategically covering all of the blind spots. I put my half full bag of gold fish back in my backpack, and shoulder it.

"I'm going to check out the Vermeer," I tell Dez.

"Kay dude, I'll see you at home," He tells me before I hear his line cut out. I roll my eyes. As long as I'm in the field, he's supposed to have his line open in case I need back up. I would have thought that he learned that after he got me stranded in Brazil for a week last time.

I walk over to the Vermeer section. I casually look around the room, and two things catch my eyes. First, the Concert, hanging on the side wall in it's own little alcove, lights shining on it in all it's glory. Second, I notice the person sitting right across from it, staring at the beautiful seen intently. Internal alarms go off.

It's that girl Ally Dawson.

**And that's a wrap! Just want to say thank you for everyone's reviews! They mean alot to me! Until next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

"I didn't know what t o do!" I exclaim through gritted teeth for the gajillionth time as I press the heavy weight higher. Dez leans on the wall beside my bench press.

"Oh, I don't know either. You're only one of the best government operatives in the world. I'm sure you couldn't think of anything," Dez drawls and rolls his eyes. I sigh, reaching a hundred reps, and out the bar back on the rest. I sit up, wiping my face with the towel around my shoulders.

"Look," I admit, not looking him in the eye. "I just froze. She was sitting there writing in a diary or something the entire time. I couldn't have just walked up to her and asked if I could've sat there!" I exclaim. Dez raises an eyebrow.

"Or could you?"

I stare at him confused. "No, I just told you I couldn't."

He sighs. "No, why did you really not want to talk to her, Austin?"

I bite my lip, before standing up and walking over to my dresser. I pull out a wife beater and slide it on. "She's a nerd," I whisper.

Now it's Dez's turn to look confused. "So are you. Besides your cousin, I'm pretty sure you are the biggest nerd on the planet. Omitting her of course," Dez adds. I sigh.

"Yes," I start tentatively, "But I'm trying not to be at school."

"Then what are you trying to be?" Dez is starting to get exasperated.

"Cool!" I shout. I take a deep breath as silence envelops us. "Sorry man, I'm just tired. I really, really hate that place," I tell him as I Flo onto my bed, playing with my guitar pick necklace. It's silent for so long, that I had thought Dez had left.

"Which is why I've brought in help."

I sit up slowly, eyeing Dez. "You didn't," I whisper. The most wicked smile ever finds it's way onto his face, and I shiver. "Ethan said-"

"Ethan said that we could call in the crew if we needed them. So I did. Austin, even though the adults are here, this is another one of OUR missions. So we need OUR crew."

I groan and flop down on to my bed again, rubbing my tired face with my hands. "I thought they said that they were going shopping in Europe," I moan, then I correct myself. "Or at least, Joella was dragging Lauren and Acacia into some European clothing stores."

"Were, but trust me. As soon as They heard we had another mission, they got on the fastest flight here. Should arrive anytime."

I sigh and close my eyes. Joella, Lauren, and Acacia. They're my cousins, as well as an essential half of my team. Their mothers are all my mom's sisters (My grandma had four daughters) and we are all single children.

The three of them are crazy. Don't get me wrong, I love them. They've saved my life multiple times, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I need them with me. But the are cray-cray. Off their rockers. Phycotic.

They are also all sixteen year old girls.

See my point?

Joella and me both have the blonde hair that our mothers have, although hers is curly like little springs. She has piercing blue eyes, and is almost as tall as I am. And she's drop dead gorgeous. If we ever need to seduce anyone, she's our agent. Except for that time in Russia...

Also, never ever ever give her chocolate. Or stand between her and chocolate. It isn't pretty. Trust me, I have the scars to prove it. She's also our top interrogater (She has a very high success rate with boys, no surprise) and graduated from Harvard last year. Give her any lock, and she can pick it with the pins in her hair.

Lauren is antisocial. Not, doesn't-talk-to-people antisocial, but talks-way-to-much-about-irrelevant-things-to-the-p oint-that-she-scares-people-away antisocial. She's the OTHER cousin. She's the one that is always ommitted from the Biggest Nerd List, because if we didn't ommit her, she'd BE the list. She's the only other one in our family to graduate from Oxford, but she did it at twelve. With perfect makes too.

But of course no one blames her of cheating.

Literally though, she is our walking-talking-breathing dictionary/translater/calculater/encyclopedia. She can quote anything (Just don't ask her to quote Sherlock Holmes. She recited all fifty six short stories and four novels once. It took thirteen hours, of which we were all stuck in a submarine with her, so we couldn't exactly run away) but has a tendency to babble. In other languages. She's also our Chameleon, and thanks to her Sherlock Holmes obsession can 'observe and deduce' as she outs it.

She has long brown hair, and we both got the same brown eyes. And she's short. Like dwarfy short. (But I highly recomend NOT mentioning her height, because she's passive aggressive. If you catch my drift.)

And then there's Acacia. Acacia is actually Uncle Ethan's daughter. She lives with her mom, and is what we call a ghost. She technically doesn't exist (Although when I told her that once when we were younger, she flipped me over her shoulder, winded me, then kicked me where the sun doesn't shine and asked me in a sickly sweet voice "Are you sure I don't exist?") Her mom technically died when Ethan and her were on their honey moon, but she really just went under deep cover. Acacia doesn't like to talk about her home life much because of it.

She has firey red hair, that she cuts at her shoulders and bright green eyes which she usually hides behind big rimmed glasses. She's petite and could easily pass as an innocent child.

Trust me, she's far from innocent.

I decided that a long time ago, after she caught my pants on fire. And rigged my hairspray container to blow fire. To say the least, I wore a hat for months afterwards (Traumatized skin takes longer for the hair to grow back) and we were only six at the time. Luckily, I haven't done anything to get on her bad side since then.

She's also our field operative. Kind of like Lauren, she's a wallflower. But I think of her more like a viper. You don't see her until it's too late, and her strike is fatal.

Always fatal.

I think the reason we get along so well is that we have the same personality. Quiet, but perky. Thoughtful, but fun loving. She's probably my favourite cousin, just don't tell Joe and Laur I said that.

Together, we make our team. Joella is our sexy interrogator, Lauren is our brains, Dez is our geek, Acacia is our agent, and I'm the leader. But trust me. I didn't choose this position. I'd do anything to change it, but it's our system now. Our crew. Every team has different components, and trust me when I say that ours covers all.

Which is why I suppose I had a smile on my face, despite the fact that my doorbell was just rung by my crazy cousins. Because, even though they're crazy, they're still my team. They're my family.

And we weren't complete without them.

**Hey! Was sup everyone? Sorry it's short, I just wanted to introduce Austin's team. Because every spy has a crew! Or at least in Mission Impossible. Hope you all liked, and please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Hello, Justin Beiber is _way _cuter than Harry Styles."

"I'm sorry, you must still be a bit blind from when I blew up the phosphorus acid in you face. Justin Beiber has nothing on Harry Styles."

"Why you little-"

"Austin!"

As I open the front door, Joella is the first to notice me, wrapping me in a hug. Lauren and Acacia send on last glare at eachother, before turning and scowling at me. The hairs on my neck immediatley stand on end. Acacia steps forward, but instead of hugging me, punches my arm.

Hard.

Now, most people think that girls punch weak. Well, most people have never made my cousins angry. As soon as her fist connects with my upper arm, pain explodes through my bicep.

"What the hell was that for?" I whine as I hold my arm.

"Why didn't you call us the moment you found out you had another mission?" Lauren demands.

I give an awkward chuckle. "Yeah, about that..."

They roll their eyes, and push past me into the house. Oh, don't I feel loved. I follow them in, and shut the door behind us. "How was Europe?" I try a topic change.

"Marvelous!" Joella shouts at the same time Lauren and Acacia say "Atrocious."

I roll my eyes. They look similar to how they did a few weeks ago. Joella is wearing some pricelss designer clothes, while Lauren is wearing a baggy shirt under some worn overalls. Acacia is wearing basketball shorts and a hoodie that looks _way _too hot for Miami. They each are carrying a school backpack, probably filled with explosives or something equally as dangerous like eyeliner.

I raise my eyebrows at Lauren, whose backpack probably weighs more than her. It's huge, and looks like it's busting at the seams. I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled a whole library out of her back pack right then and there.

I look closer, and notice that there's something different about Acacia. I look closer, and that's when I notice the faint green strips in her red hair. I chuckle.

"Does your hair have anything to do with the aforementioned phosphorus explosion Lauren created?" I ask as they drop their bags on the kitchen table. Sure enough, Lauren's bag spills open to reveal books in all shapes and sizes.

Acacia's face hardens, and Lauren suppresses a chuckle. I'll take that as a yes.

"Dez!" Joella smiles, and I look up to see our red-headed friend in the doorway. He smiles at the girls.

"Hey guys! Thanks for coming."

"Anytime," Joella smiles. "So, what exactly is our mission priority this time?" She asks as she flops onto the kitchen bar stool. I walk over to the cupboard, and open the door. I find the container labeled Paprika, and pull it forward. The cupboards move to the side, revealing several computer screens. The glass tabletop turns on, revealing the hidden touch computer screen. I walk over to the table, and tap a couple of icons, pulling up the painting.

"A Vermeer. Or _the _Vermeer, to be exact."

"The Concert?" Acacia recognizes the painting right away. She looks confused. "Does this have to do with the warning card that was recieved last month?"

I stare at her, and this time it's my turn to be confused. "How did you- wait. Nevermind, I don't want to know," I pinch the bridge of my nose. My cousins all smile way to innocently for my liking.

"Anyways," Dez starts, "We're just watching the painting at the moment," He taps a couple things on the table top, and the computers on the wall suddenly show the live video feed from the security cameras. A half dozen grainer feeds pop up as well, and from their positioning, I can tell that they're the ones I planted earlier.

"Is that the David?" Lauren asks. Dez rolls his eyes.

"Does everyone but me know the name of the stupid naked statue?"

We all send him a look.

"Nevermind," He says in a total Dez way. He turns back to the computer. "The Hale has this painting under top security. We're talking motion, heat, even lighting sensors. When it's not on display, it's bolted in a cement storing room under the museum with the other priceless art. And to top it all off, The Hale keeps a record of how often you visit, and what areas you visit, to watch for suspicious activity."

Acacia whistled. "So how are you planning on keeping tabs on it?"

I smirk. "You are currently looking at Marino Fine Art School's newest student. Because it's a fine art institution, the students get free passes to the Hale, as well as most of the afternoon is spent there for art class."

They all stare at me as though I've grown four heads. Acacia collects her wits first. "You're going to high school?"

Lauren breaks out laughing. I roll my eyes. "Yes, but it's not just me. All of us, with the exception of Dez are going."

That made Lauren stop laughing. "Wait, what?"

"You heard him," Dez crosses his arms. "You all are going to the highschool, because the deeper undercover we are, the better. The three of you shall pose as Austin's cousins from Europe, who are thinking of moving here. You are staying for three months, to see if you like the American schooling system."

"Hey, I can tell you right now that I don't like the American schooling system," Lauren tells us. "Why do you think I went to Oxford in England rather than Harvard here?"

"Because Harvard wouldn't accept you?" I bat my eyelashes innocently.

She turns and scowls at me. "At least I graduated without cheating."

"For the sevenhundredth and sixty fourth time," (I know because I've been keeping count) "I DIDN'T CHEAT!"

"Sure you didn't," They all say in sync, and let me tell you, it's TERRIFYING when they do that. And if you don't believe me, well, you didn't see what they did to the poor chap in Poland when they were eleven. And let me tell you, it was all in sync.

"Hey girls," Ethan walks in. They all smile.

"Hi dad," Acacia hugs her father.

"Austin informing you guys?"

"Unfortunately," I mutter. Dez shoots me a look and I plaster a fake smile on my face. "Oh yeah!"

"Great. I'll see you guys in the morning," He grabs a glass of water before leaving. I hear a muffled gunshot go off downstairs, followed by a string of profanities. Looks like Luther and Benji are home. I'm distracting from the cuss words as What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction starts blasting. I look over to see Lauren answer her cellphone. She puts it on speaker, as she's trying to shove all her books back into her backpack.

"Yeah?" She says, and we're all quiet, so she can talk.

"Hey American Girl."

Lauren's hands freeze, and she glares at her phone. Joella and Acacia snicker. My own blood runs cold. I'd recognize that voice from anywhere. I should. We went to Oxford together. We're the same age. We're in the same line of work. The only difference is the companies we work for.

"What do you want Zach?" Lauren's voice is icy. I have to hold back a chuckle. Zachary Goode might be one of my top rivals, but that's nothing compared to him and LAuren.

See, when we were twelve, we had our first solo mission. We were all assigned someone to tail. Acacia was actually assigned Joella. I had some dude in Interpol, (That might or might not have been the incident including my car chase with Interpol. You can't prove anything) and Lauren was assigned Zachary Goode, from M16.

What we didn't know was that they were tailing us too.

Apparently the three corporations decided to truce long enough to test all their newer agents. They wanted us to see who was good enough to stay away from someone trained exactly like we were. Joella and Acacia figured it out a few weeks into it. Acacia and her tail weren't long after that. But Lauren and Zach never figured it out. They were both so good that they were finally informed because it was going no where. Ever since they've been waiting for the opportunity to show eachother up again.

I personally didn't like Zach because he was so cocky. And we might have also had the same mission priorty once, and he beat me. For the record, I could have beaten him had I known we were allowed to play dirty.

All in all, he's not exactly someone that we're fond of.

"I was just wondering why you rushed out of Paris. It's so lovely here this time of year, especially compared to Miami."

Lauren scowled at her phone. "How did you know I was in Miami? How did you even get my number for crying outloud?"

"Spy." Is his answer. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, well as a spy you should already know why I'm here then," Lauren snaps before ending her call. She picks the phone up gently, between her two fingers, as thogh it's going to explode any moment (But then again, she fills her phone with nitric acid for 'Emergencies' so you never know when it actually will explode) and hands it to Dez.

"Can you change my number please? Like now?" She begs. He sets to it, placing it on the table, and pushing buttons I didn't even know the phone had.

"Well, I'm going to bed," I stand up, stretching. You guys should too. You'll want to be well rested for your first day of High school tomorrow." And I realize with a shock, that it's true. They might have already graduated from University, but they had never been to Highschool. Today was my first day ever even.

As soon as they're out of sight, I hear them start arguing about boy bands and boy singers again. I roll my eyes. Acacia is a Belieber, and Lauren a Directioner, so things got loud at times.

I make my way up to my bedroom, and strip down to my boxers, before collapsing on my bed. I fall asleep instantly.

My alarm clock goes off again, and it doesn't even feel like I've slept. At all. I roll out of bed, and into the shower. I decide to wear white washed skinny jeans, and a dark blue button up shirt. I jeep it untucked, and un-do the top buttons. I roll up the sleeves, and finish the look with my pick necklace, which you can see because of the undone buttons.

I mess up my hair in the mirror, before applying some cologne and sliding into a pair of lowrise converse. I suppose I'm going for a more magazine cover look today. I just hope it works. Seeing as how I don't really know what my 'style' is, I figured I might as well try several things out. I have the money, so why not.

I grab my back pack off my dresser. As soon as I'm in the kitchen, I can hear my cousins. But as I round the corner, I certainly don't _see _my cousins. Well, I see Joella, dressed in a designer dress that hugs her curves, her blonde curls styled perfectly, and her make-up proffessionaly done. But the two other girls in the room are certainly NOT my cousins.

Acacia isn't wearing her usual sports outfit. Rather, a pair of skinny purple jeans and a baggy off the shoulder t-shirt clad her. Her red hair has been cut from it's usual shoulder legnth, into a more modern layered cut, and her green eyes are free of the pink framed glasses. She's wearing Uggs and, good lord, is she wearing make-up?

Lauren is more casual, but toally not Lauren. The bag lady in overalls from last night is gone, replaced with teenaged beach girl. Her frizzy hair which is always, ALWAYS pulled into a ponytail has been straightened, and is pinned back at the sides. She's wearing short washed-out jean shorts, and a pretty white blouse. For the first time since I could remember, her tanned skin was visible. And her chunky framed glasses were gone, taking away her nerd look.

"You know, if you want to catch flies, they invented fly paper for a reason," Joella smirks. The other two look up from their books, and I shut my mouth.

"How did you..?"

"Make them look normal?" Joella asks. She's met by two indignant heys, but I nod. "Trust me, with quite a few broken nails," She frowns at her hands. I blow air out of my mouth and raise my eyebrows.

"Well, you did good. Come on, we don't want to be late," I grab the keys to one of our BMW's from the fruit bowl. Joella and Acacia grab their designer purses, and Lauren grabs a worn jean satchel that pulls her beach babe look together. Both Lauren and Acacia glare at me.

"Don't think we still can't beat your butt," Acacia growls at me. And I believe her.

We walk down to the sublevels, and find the BMW the keys belong to. It's the silver and blue convertable. Joella rides shotgun, as Lauren and Acacia sit in the back. We drive to school in silence, and pull into the parking lot.

If I thought I drew a lot of attention yesterday, it's absolutely nothing comapred to today. As I park the car (In Dallas's spot) Everyone is watching us. I swing my black backpack onto one shoulder, as my cousins get out of the car. I swear every guy in a mile radius couldn't stop staring. I lock the car, as we make our way inside.

"Austin!" I hear a squeal and turn to see Kira, Cassidy and Brooke run towards us.

"Hey guys," I say, "These are my cousins from Europe. They'll be coming here for the next three months." I remember our cover. Kira turns to them, and eyes them. I catch the look of competetition in her eyes, before she plasters on a fake smile.

"Pleasure to meet you guys," She says. "Welcome to Marino High."

To say the least, I'm pretty sure Acacia was about to pull out her switchblade and give Kira a look that no plastic surgeon could fix, if the bell didn't ring. I usher them to the office, as everyone runs to class.

"Be nice," I whisper a warning to them, and they all grumble a compliance. Acacia takes out a tube of lip gloss and puts it on, and I realize just how more dangerous they are like this. At least when they were dressed as themselves they didn't have access to deadly lipgloss tubes.

After recieving their schedules from my mom (Which, surprise surprise, we have the exact same schedule) As well as their own ceit cards that Dez put together for them last night, we head off to math. Mrs. Dodds glares at us as we come in.

"Mr. Moon. Care to explain why you're late?" Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

I gesture to my cousins. "I'm showing them around."

Mrs. Dodds glares, but we walk to the back of the class to take a seat. Joella sends a flirtatious wink to some Jocks, and I swear that they drool.

Math is as boring as ever. I didn't do the homework last night, but it doesn't matter because I ace the pop quiz anyways. So does the girls.

English is equally as boring, and Kira sits near me. She kept on pestering me and clinging onto my arm. I couldn't stand it, and I think Lauren could tell. The way she was holding her pencil is scaring me. I kick her under the desk, and shoot her a look. She sighs and goes back to her essay.

Physics is totally normal minus the fact that Lauren turned Mr. Mackenzie's hair green (Unfortunately she sweet talked that Ethan kid into lending her his phosphorus that we were supposed to be adding to water. And you know, Dez obviously didn't think about removing the Nitric acid from her phone. Psh, nothing bad can come from having accessible Nitric Acid around my cousins.)

History was a dud as usual, Acacia translating a whole column of Aztec heiroglyphs, because after our trip in Brazil a few years ago, she made a point of being able to read them. Apparently the Aztecs liked to write real dirty things on their sacred temple walls.

Joella and I ended up being on the same team for football, and boy, were the jocks never more embarrassed. Even I was impressed by Joella's tackle. She didn't even break a nail or get a grass stain, which scared me because she broke six this morning getting Lauren and Acacia dressed. What exactly happened there?

I meet the three of them outside of the change rooms as the bell signalling lunch goes off. We make our way to the cafeteria. Everyone looks at us when we come in, and I can't blame them. We are quite the group. We grab food, and I mean actual food, as in, burgers, fries and pop all around. My cousins, even though their skinny and petite, eat as much as I do.

We grab a table, and eat our food. Kira and her gang sit down around us. I can hear my cousins groan, but they but on fake smiles. Dallas glares at me, but starts checking out my cousins. His eyes stop on Lauren. I'm mentally pleading with him not to try anything, but of course, that doesn't work. He sits between her and Cassidy.

"Hi, I'm Dallas," He smiles at her. I roll my eyes. He's going to get it.

"That's nice," Lauren says, taking a long slurp on her pop. She seems to realize that Dallas isn't going away, and sends him a smile. "Can I help you with something?"

"You know," No, don't do it Dallas, "I got an A in chemistry, and right now I can tell you that we have chemistry." He did it.

Lauren's eyebrows scrunch together. "Actually, we don't have chemistry, we have physics. And seeing as how you're an egotistical jock, who's probably even more narcicstic that Austin, I don't understand how you would have been able to get an A in chemistry. Your brain just isn't capable of that kind of ability."

Everybody oohs, but Dallas just smiles.

"I'll get you," He winks at her, and I'm pretty sure I just barfed in my mouth.

"Anyways," Kira rolls her eyes and pokes at her skimpy salad. "Ready for Drama class Austin?"

"Oh yeah," I say with fake enthusiasm. But I guess she doesn't pick up on the fake part.

"So", Cassidy turns to Acacia," You guys are from Europe?"

Acacia looks like she wants to strangle Cassidy with her fries (Which trust me, isn't pretty) but nods. "We're from Paris."

"Really? You don't speak french and you lived in Paris?" Kira raises her eyebrows doubtfully. Please don't kill her, please don't kill her...

"_Vraiment? Parceque je pense que nous le parlons mieux que toi." _She snaps.

Lauren and Joella add some obscenities in french, but I roll my eyes. "_Vous." _I correct Acacia. "_Mieux que vous."_

_"Tu utilise uniquement 'vous' si tu veux être respectueux." _She snaps back at me. I roll my eyes. And my cousins think I'm immature.

I try to concentrate on my fries while Joella and Kira compare designer bags, but just as my day couldn't get any worst, I hear, "Hey American Girl."

The fry which I was eating gets lodged in my throat, and I let out a cough. Everyone in the Cafeteria turns and looks, and boy, do the girls swoon. His hands are in his pockets, and he's staring at my cousin with his dark eyes. His dark hair is messy like mine, but that's where the similarities stop. He's wearing beige slacks, a white shirt, and a blazer. I feel my stomach lurch. Great.

Lauren looks just as shocked as we are to see him. She stands up, and crosses her arms. "What are you doing here Zach?"

"Trying to figure out why you guys ran out of my continent so fast," He rolls his eyes. He's speaking with his flawless American accent. He turns to me. "Austin."

"Zach," I say in the same tone. Joella smiles and hugs Zach. She's the only one who doesn't have anything against him, and that's just because she thinks he's, in her words, 'Smokin' hawt!'

"Zach! So good to see you," She gushes. He smiles back at her. Then he rudely, but much to my relief, sits between Lauren and Dallas.

"I'm Kira," Kira turns on the flirt. Zach just looks at her before turning back to Lauren, who's holding her fork dangerously tight.

"My pops ssays he wants me to attend this school for this year. What a coincidence that you gs are here," He tells her, and they have a staring contest. Coincidence my butt. Pops is his codename for Mr. Red, M16's latest chairman. Since when is M16 budding onto our turf? I was going to have a serious conversation with my uncle when we got home. "Besides, I needed to talk to you guys."

"What could you possibly want to tell us that we don't already know?" Acacia snaps at him. He might have broken her JB CD a couple years back, and now she absolutely loathes him.

"Oh, nothing much," He says, as he steals one of Lauren's fries. She looks like she wants to murder him. "Just an interesting incident that happened last month with the project," He lowers his voice. Thankfully, Kira and her buddies, were all talking, so it was just me and my cousins listening to Zach.

"We all know about the warning," I say. "Even when you're in the paths of Cleopatra's tomb, you hear about that sort of thing," I say sarcastically. Zach eyes me. I suddenly remember why I hated him so much in University.

"No, I'm talking about the incident that happened exactly 87 hours before that one."

We all look at him expectantly. He smirks. "A girl from this school tripped, and when she fell, her arm brushed against the painting. All the sensors went off, but it wasn't made into a big deal, because everyone thought it was an accident."

"Well," Lauren rolls her eyes at him. "Are you going to make us guess who it was?"

Zach looks at her, but then meets my eyes. The smile on his face sends chills down my back as he says, "Her name is Ally Dawson."


	6. Chapter 6

"Dez can you run reference?" I'm vaguely aware of Acacia muttering. I hear Dez confirm over the comms, but I can't take my eyes off of Zach. He steals another one of Lauren's fries, but this time she doesn't do anything about it.

"Confirmed," The word rings in my ear. "Allyson Marie Dawson. Age seventeen. Current student at Marino Fine Arts Institution. Majoring in song writing and instrum- wait, isn't this the girl you're crushing on Austin?"

"Dez!" Austin shouted. Kira and her friends shot him strange looks. He gave a flopsy smile. "Bought the .latest copy of Florza. You should totally come over after school Zach, and we can game it," He covered, his ears turning red. Everyone went back to lunch.

"Woah, woah, woah," Joella gave me her evil eye. "You're crushing on a girl and you didn't tell me?"

"No!" I whisper yell. "Dez is making that up."

"Or is he?" Zach raises an eyebrow at me. I send him my death glare.

"Shut-it Goode"

"Back at you Moon."

"Guys!" Acacia cuts us off. "Lower the testosterone."

We grumble, but comply. "Austin which one is she?" Lauren asks me, taking a bite out of her burger.

"Third table from the garbage cans, brown ombre hair, red jacket, eating macaroni salad, talking to the Latina," I miss without a beat. Lauren casually looks up, as does Acacia.

"We have visual," Acacia mutters so quietly that I wouldn't have heard her had it not been for the comms. I look to see that they have caught her reflection in the glass in front of us. Most people look behind them to find a visual. We look for the nearest reflective surface. "Dez what was the report?"

"September seventh alarms were triggered when Ms. Dawson tripped and her forearm brushed the Vermeer. Was released without charges. Only witness was Patricia Maria De La Rosa."

I turn to Zach, doing the math in my head. "How many hours did that occur before the incident?"

"87," He tells me, not quite seeing where I'm going. As much as I hate it, I pass him a comm under the table. I don't miss his smirk.

"Dez, at what time did the card appear in the frame?" I whisper to my comm unit. Thankfully Kira and her crew have moved to go flirt with some jocks and cheerleaders, leaving just our table.

"September eleventh, at 5:15 in the morning it was noticed. No one is quite sure when the card was placed there though. There cameras had been on a loop feed. Whoever we're dealing with, they're good. Like, Goode good."

I roll my eyes. But as the numbers click in my head, the amusement leaves my face. Acacia picks up on it right away. "What is it?"

I shake my head. "Probably nothing."

"In the words of Sherlock Holmes," We all groan, but Lauren carries on oblivious, "The smallest details are by far the most important," She quotes in her best English accent. Zach pats her hand.

"Cute try, but leave the English accent to me sweet heart."

She makes a face, and Zach is lucky we're in school right now. Otherwise he'd be dead in two seconds flat. Trust me. One time an interrogator called Lauren sweet heart, and, well... he had two seconds flat.

She pulls her hand away, a look of pure disgust on her face as she looks at her hand as though it's no longer a part of her. I snicker, but she shoots me a glare that make me choke on the soda I'm drinking.

"Anyways, I just realized. She bumped the painting at 12:15 then right?" I motion with my hands. They look lost but nod.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Acacia asks. I sigh.

"Look at the time."

At the same time, they pull out their iPhones, and look at the time. I roll my eyes. They can stalk someone without even raising an eyebrow, yet they can't even look at the time without turning heads. The world is weird.

"It's 12:20" Joella says as they put away their phones in sync. "What about it?"

I roll my eyes, but Zach understands. "It was lunch time."

"What?" Joella looks at him like he's crazy, but I can tell she's still checking him out. I roll my eyes.

"She bumped the painting at lunch time. Not in class. The question is what was she doing at the Hale at lunch."

"Preparing for class?"

"Hiding from bullies?"

"Doing extra credit work?"

I give Lauren a look. "Lauren, only you would do extra credit work. She couldn't have been prepping for class, because it's not art we have after lunch, and even though she's a nerd, The populars don't waste their time on her. She was there for another reason."

"Have you ever thought that maybe she just wants some inspiration for the songs she writes?" Lauren asks me. My brow crinkles.

"She writes songs?"

"Observation and deduction," Lauren says in a duh tone. "She's majoring in song writing, and she's always scribbling in that atrociously dog-eared book. I think it's pretty safe to say that she writes songs."

"Not that you would know how to do that," Acacia mumbles under her breath, and they all break out laughing. I roll my eyes.

"Haha, very funny," I deadpan. "My song wasn't that bad."

They all look at each other, then break out laughing. Even Zach snickers.

"Yeah," Joella gets in between her laughter, "Because all the to forty hits are about calling pioneer rangers!"

"I need a song, it can't be too long, song, song, song, song, song, song, song, song, song, song," Lauren and Acacia break out laughing.

"Hey, Dez wrote half of that one!" I try to defend myself, but they won't listen. The bell goes off and we all stand up. I turn to Lauren, remembering how her parents specialize in reading people.

"Hey Laur," I ask as we make our way out of the cafeteria, "Can you call your parents to get them to read Ally?"

Suddenly, my three cousins go quiet, and they look like they've eaten something sour. Joella looks at Lauren concerned, and she stops walking. After a moment of silence, which leaves me very much confused, Acacia speaks up.

"Austin, Aunty Sally and Uncle Paul won't be able to help us."

"Why not?" I ask. OK, now I'm really confused.

"We'll you see-"

"They're gone." Lauren blurts out. The five of us stop in the hall outsider the drama room door.

"What do you mean, gone?" I ask, my eyes wide. Lauren bites her lip, and I can tell that she's trying hard not to cry. Even Zach's usual carefree expression is gone.

"You know how they were on the Delta mission three weeks ago?" Joella asks me in a hushed tone. I nod. Right after the four of us got back from Cairo, we were informed that Lauren's parents were leaving for the Delta mission, keeping an eye on some KGB mischief. I haven't really thought about it, because all of our parents are constantly gone on missions. We've pretty much just grown up with each other.

"They never checked in at the rendezvous, and their comms blanked not even twenty four hours into the mission. One second they are getting off the plane in Russia, the next it's like they never existed," Lauren says tersley.

"So they've just disappeared? Over three weeks ago and I've just found out about it now?" I'm shocked. Lauren locks her jaw.

"It's my problem. We had just got back from the trip in Cairo, and we needed a break. I didn't need you to be worried about this. Other than Joe and Acacia, we're the only ones who know. Excluding the pops of course," Lauren tells me. I shake my head. I can't believe Sally and Paul have been missing. But what bugs me most is that I didn't notice.

"Lauren, I'm sorry," Zach tells my cousin. She nods numbly, and then puts the weakest smile I've ever seen on her face.

"Well, we should go. Don't want to be late," She walks into class. Acacia and Joella follow behind her. I catch Zach's eye.

"So, I take it your in on this now?" I ask him. He nods. I'm about to enter the class, when I turn back to him. "Zach? Don't hurt her, alright?"

He looks at me confused. "What do you mean?"

I let out a dry chuckle. "You'll find out soon enough," I mutter, before entering the class.

Everyone is already there, and the bell goes off just as I walk through the doors. Mrs. Gables shoots me a stem look, so I put my head down, and scurry to my seat.

"Alright class, I. believe that we have four new students with us today," She smiles at the girls and Zach. "Would you care to introduce yourselves?" The four of them give a quick introduction of themselves, before Mrs. Gables claps her hands together.

"So, I have big news for everyone!" She smiled. "We will be showcasing our production for Thanksgiving!"

We're all dead silent. Kira cautiously speaks up. "Mrs. Gables, are you serious? That means we have less than a month!"

Mrs. Gables nods with way to much enthusiasm. "I know. Which means that every Saturday we shall have drama practice in addition to class. Mr. Lea wants it to premiere the night of the Fall Ball!"

"Fall Ball?" I whisper confused.

"Every year the school seems to hold a dance on Thanksgiving," Dez supplies the information in my ear.

"So, we are all going to have to work extra hard because it's in a months time!" She trills. "Our new students shall be put on scene decoration. Let's get to work!"

My cousins and Zach immediately walk over to the scene department. As I watch them go, I can't help but feel some frustration. I just can't believe that they wouldn't tell me our Aunt and Uncle were missing. But then again, I suppose they didn't want me to go in a nother funk like I did last time. Our Grandfather disappeared six months ago, and I didn't take his disappearance well.

I might have gone a little AWOL, my cousins finding me at a mini donut stand in Canada... yeah, I can see why they didn't tell me.

"Alright. Today we shall work on the first musical number, Surf's Up. Connor and Ally, join the set. You need to practice with the others."

We spend the next hour just going over the choreography. Thankfully my character doesn't do much in this number, so I get a lot of down time. As Dallas rehearses one of the surfboard scenes, I go and sit beside Connor. Ally is beside him, but is writing in her book. I glance over my shoulder to see Joella and Acacia trying to build something, and Lauren and Zach yelling at each other. Zach says something with a smirk, and Lauren blushes cherry red, sending him a glare. Joe and Acacia laugh. Some things just never change.

"Dude you alright? You're kind of zoning?" Connor asks me. I refocus and send him a guilty look.

"Sorry. My cousins were just drawing my attention," I motion to them, and Connor turns in time to catch Lauren punching Zach in the chest. To everyone it looked playful, but I knew better.

"Haha, don't worry bro. That's pretty awesome that they're your cousins. They seem pretty cool. Anyways, I said I was going to see if I could swipe some cookies from the cafeteria. Wanna come?"

"I'm fine thanks," I tell him.

He shrugs. "Cover me," He winks as he sneaks out of the room. I roll my eyes.

I notice that Ally is looking at me, so I turn and smile at her. She blushes, and it's utterly adorable. I clear my throat. "Ally right?"

She nods. "And you're Austin."

WTD? Maybe she is a spy. Or worst, KGB. How else could she know it's me? Shoot, should I knock her out, or divert her attention. What did the Manuel say in this situation? Not that I've read spies for dummies. Course not. Rats, this is when LauRen's Photographic memory would come in handy!

I'm just about to try and slip her some sleeping powder, when she laughs at the confusion on my face. She smiles and for a strange reason, my stomach flips. "You're the new kid. Everyone won't shut-up about you."

"Oh," I blush. Yeesh Austin, why are you such an idiot? KGB? Seriously? You're turning into Zach. I shiver at the thought.

"So," She plays with the pencil in her fingers, but doesn't continue writing, "How are you liking Miami?"

"It's hot," I say right away, then wince at how stupid that sounded. "I mean, not as hot a Cairo, but still pretty hot."

"Cairo?" She raises her eyebrows. I go into panic mode. Why did I say that?

"Yeah, my grandma is in Cairo. And, um, I love my grandma!" I blurt. From across the room I see four heads give me 'Are you serious?' looks. I take a deep breath. What the heck is wrong with me. Dez starts talking in my ear, as does the others all at once. Is it just me, or is the room getting hotter? Why is my crew blabbering so loud? I feel like I'm suffocating. So I do something that I've never done before.

I turn my comm off.

As I pretend to brush my bangs out of my face, I deftly flick the small mechanism off. Immediately I no longer feel overwhelmed, and take a breath to focus. The first thing I can here is Ally's laughter.

"You OK?" She giggles, taking in my red face. I nod. What is it about this girl that makes me loose focus? Honestly, I've lied to girls with much more curves than this one. I've stolen from girls with prettier faces, more vibrant hair, and pretty eyes. And yet, for some reason, this plain nerd has my tongue tied.

I swear it's easier to lie to a lie detector successfully than it is to her.

Deciding I need something to focus on, I remind myself that she's the one who brushed the painting. I decide to steer the conversation that way. At least I'll have a topic to focus on now.

"So," I start, "Why are you here?"

She looks at me amused. "Because drama is a mandatory class."

I blush at my own stupidity. "No, I meant-"

I'm cut off again by her laughter. She shakes her head. "Sorry, I know what you mean. My passion is music, and this was the only fine arts institution in Miami."

"Cool," I nod. "What can you play?"

"Just Piano, but I'm trying to broaden out to other instruments. I also like to write songs."

_Back story is checking out so far, _I find myself mentally note taking. Acacia would be so proud of me for multitasking. Not. She'd probably just roll her eyes at me and mutter "About time."

"Really?" I pretend to be intrigued. "That's quite a talent. I love music, but I can't write a song to save my life. Where do you get your inspiration from?". Mental hi-five Austin!

"All over," She says generally. "But I must admit that spending most of my time at the Hale definitely helps."

"My mom is a big fan of that stuff," I smile. The best .lies are rooted in the truth. "She loves that Money guy."

"Monet?" She corrects me while laughing. I nod.

"Yeah, Monet."

'What about you?" she asks me. "Your mom likes Monet. What does the mysterious Austin Moon like?"

"M-mysterious?" I clear my throat, struggling for words. "I'd hardly say that I'm mysterious."

She scoffs. "Please. You're the new boy, who arrives a month into school. Genius?" She raises her eyebrows at me, "Playboy?" She points like she's got it pinned. She bites her lip and I raise my eyebrows. "Billionare?". She pulls back and pretends to study me intently. "Or Philanthropist?"

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, all I'm missing is the metal suit and an arc reactor implant in my chest," I roll my eyes. "Honestly, did you not think I am into Avengers?"

She laughs. "As I said, we'll never know, will we Mr. Mysterious?" She wiggles her eyebrows and I go red again. She laughs. Then she reaches over and pats my shoulder. "Don't worry, if there's one thing that you and Tony Stark have in common it's your huge ego."

"Hey!" I protest, but she breaks down into giggles. I roll my eyes and stand up. "I need water. You want one?"

She manages to nod, but she's laughing to hard to actually respond. I roll my eyes as I walk away. What is happening to me? I take a couple breaths, as I hear a crackling in my ear.

"-Not rocket science you doof!"

"Ow! Hey watch th-"

"Austin, can you hear me?" Acacia's voice breaks into my ear. I reach up and tug on a lock of my blond hair. "Thank goodness. Now, down to business. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

I wince. She certainly didn't need the comms for that. I can hear her from across the room. Everyone looks at her, but she's acting like she's yelling at Zach. When I see the surfboard he's holding up with the flowers painted on it, I almost get my hopes up, until she starts yelling again.

"That was the stupidest decision you've ever made!" She screams, looking at Zach, but catching my eyes in the glass. She goes off muttering, but I can still hear her in my ear.

"How did you guys turn it back on?" I ask slightly annoyed. Never a moment of peace around my cousins.

"Oh, I don't know. I seem to vaguely recall the fact that we have a girl in the room who hacked NASA in twenty two seconds, but I have no idea how she hacked the comm that she invented!" Acacia whisper screamed, referring to Lauren.

"jUSt get out of my head and let me focus!" I mutter as I reach the cooler with water bottles. I pull out two, and then start making my way back across the room.

"Oh yes, because you seemed to be doing perfectlay well on your own, Mr. I love my grandma!"

I roll my eyes, but don't respond, because I'm nearing Ally. I'm almost to her when Kira walks up.

"Hey Austy!" She says, shooting Ally a death look. "Thanks for the water!" She grabs the bottle made for Ally from my hand.

"Actually that was-"

"Such a sweet gesture!" Ally suddenly says. "I'm going to go now," She whispers, standing up and collecting her things. In a matter of moments, I watch the girl before me change from the outgoing make-me-blush girl, to a shy introvert. She hunches her shoulders, and stares at the ground, allowing her hair to fall into her face. Kira turns back and smiles at me, but I don't feel the same butterflies as when Ally smiles.

"So, you ready for the next scene?"

"What? Oh- yeah," I tell her, but my eyes are on a petite brunnete as she makes her way through the crowd. "I'll be right back," I tell Kira as I push past her. I ignore her protests, as I watch Ally slip outside. A moment later, I follow.

But the sight I'm greeted with is yet again different from what I expected. The shy introvert is gone, just as the outgoing girl was gone. As I stood in the shadows of the door frame, I watched a girl with confidence and purpose pace in the hall. A phone was to her ear, and I struggled to hear her conversation.

"-someone."

Silence with only the click of her heels on the floor.

"I don't know. Why risk it? They already have enough leverage as it is, and they know it."

More silence as the person responds. She shakes her head.

"He's different from them. I just can't place a finger on it. All of them. Him, his cousins, and even that new kid. They all are hiding something. I just can't figure it out."

Wait, she's talking about me. And my crew. I lean forward slightly to try and catch more of her conversation. But my stupid shoe squeaks on the polished tile. Faster than I can even blink, Ally stops and scans the area. Her eyes miss me, but the suspiscioun on her face never wavers.

"I gotta go," She says tersley into the phone. She snaps it shut, before putting it in her bag. After one last scan of the area, she suddenly droops her shoulders, looks at the floor, and let's her hair fall in front of her face. She doesn't see me as she walks back into class as the shy introvert. Suddenly, my throat goes dry.

"Guys, we definitely have a problem."

"What sort of problem?" Dez's voice crackles in my ear. I stare at the spot Ally had been not a second earlier.

"She's an actress. It's all some kind of fake," I whisper.

"Who?" Joella's voice is loud in my ear. But I don't wince, because I am lost in thought.

"Ally," I whisper. "She's definitely not who she says she is."

And I intend to figure out what she's hiding.

**Hello again!**

**Thank you everyone for your reviews, they mean a lot to know that you guys actually like my story! This chapter was a bit of Auslly, and deepened the plot for you. And I'm so happy you received the OCs so well! I know that when you introduce other characters (Especially as many as I did) It can be annoying, but I'm so glad that you guys are OK with them! This story will center around Austin and Ally of course, but I brought in Austin's "Cousins" because they added humour, and Zachary Goode (Koodos to the people who realized I took him from the Gallagher girls) for reasons that shall be revealed later on.**

**And I promise you will learn more about Ally... eventually.**

**Thanks again, and please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

"And right swim, left swim, right back, left back, and jerk step, jerk twist, jerk step jerk. And bring it to the front, and four, and five, and jump hands up, down, down, down, cruise, cruise, and you bring it to the ground," My voice rings out.

Mrs. Gables put me in charge of teaching the Surf's up dance, since I already knew it, so that she could work with Dallas some more on Surf Crazy. As we finish the first part, I call a water break. But not cause I'm thirsty, but because I can't focus.

I watch as Ally walks over to the drink table and gets a bottle of water. she avoids people, keeping her head down. I have to admit, her acting is top notch.

"Earth to Moon, can you stop making it so blatantly obvious that you're checking her out?" Acacia's voice rings in my ear. I blush and look away, only to realize that she thought I was analyzing her, not checking her out, checking her out.

"Dez anything new on her?" I ask as I lean against the wall.

"Actually, I'm noticing a re-occuring pattern with her history."

"It being," I prompt.

"Everything almost seems fake, it's so perfect. Her father is Lester Dawson, owner of the music store Sonic Boom in the Miami mall. Her mother is Penny Dawson, an author who is currently in Africa for her new book. They live in a quaint little house on the nice side of town. That all seems pretty normal. But it's their finances that throw me. It's almost like their ghosting. No noise complaints, hardly any electrical use, and the bills are all paid on the fifteenth of each month online. No offences, nothing. Not even a speeding ticket in the file."

"Maybe they're all keeners," Lauren says. I scoff.

"Coming from you."

"Like you can talk Moon," She snaps back.

"Guys! Let's calm down before we do something to you Austin that we'll pretend to regret later, OK?" Joella hisses in my ear. I grumble, but comply. "We wouldn't want another Mr. Fuzzy incident."

Mr. Fuzzy was my chukabara. He was the biggest rodent ever. I had him when I was twelve. I had fed the girls fried worms after Dez dared me to when we were younger. It was so funny, you should have seen their faces after I told them what it was they were eating. Unfortunately, that night they màde dinner, an Asian style stir fry.

It was really good, until I got to the last piece of meat and realized that Mr. Fuzzy's leg was still attached.

I haven't had a pet since.

"Zach, does MI6 have anything on record with them?" I ask as I pretend to sip my water.

"Not that I can find. I don't think they've ever left the states."

I frown. This was not helping. "Guys, let's convene a meeting after school, and then head to IMF and see if we can dig up some dirt. Acacia, call Uncle Ethan and see if he can get Zach clearance to the sub levels now, so when we go we won't have to waste time."

"On it boss," she tells me, and I see her leave.

"Dez, keep tabs on Ally when we can't see her. Can you send the camera feed to my phone, and also see if you can hear her entire conversation?"

"Consider it done," Dez tells me before he cuts out.

The rest of class goes fast, and I don't get another moment alone with Ally. Although that's probably for the best seeing as how she already is suspicious, and I act like a blubbering idiot around her. A blush rises to my cheeks the longer I think about it.

"So, how are we going to go about this?" Joella pulls me to the side as we exit the drama room an hour later. I bite my lip while I go through the possibilities.

"Honestly, this one feels different from our other missions. Ally is evidently someone of interest, but unlike usual our info is in short supply. Our best bet is to get as close to her as possible I think," I tell her. She raises her eyebrows and gets a very VERY evil smile on her face. She pats my head.

"Aw, our little Austy is growing up."

"Shut-up."

Her laugh echoes, turning a couple of heads, most of them guys. I shoot them a glare. Do you know how awkward it is to watch people hit on your cousin? Honestly, it's weird. Really weird.

"Where's Lauren, Zach and Acacia?"I ask when I notice that they aregone. Joella shrugs.

"Acacia is probably sharpening her knives orsomething, and hopefully Lauren and Zach are making out in closet."

I stare at her strangely. "Why would I hope for that? That's just hands down gross. Not to mention weird."

Joella looks at me like I'm the stupid one. "Because, if they are making out,then that means I'll have been right, and Lauren owes me thirty bucks."

I roll my eyes. "Joella, your a millionare. You're really serious about thiry bucks?"

"Of course," She looks offended. "But it's not for the money, it's just nice to say that I was right. Those two are destined to get together someday."

"Oh yeah," I drone, "If they ever manage to get past the strangle eachother phase, then maybe they can move on to the tolerate eachother phase."

She rolls her eyes, but doesn't say anything back.

Class passes quickly, and in no time at all, wefind ourselves walking towards the Hale. I keep on fidgeting the entire way. I'm missing something, I can feel it. I just don't know exactly what it is, and it's bugging me.

Kira, Cassidy, and Brooke walk up to us. The expression on the girls faces is pricless. I would have laughed, had they not made a lame excuse of having to use the bathroom and ditched me and Zach. Thankfully Zach looks as uncomfortable as I feel.

"Austin! Zach! What a coincidence to find you two here," Kira cooes as we wait in line at the front of the museum. I grit my teeth.

"Yeah, seeing as how we have the same class next," I mumble. Kira turns to Zach.

"Zach right?"

"Yes," Zach replies in an american accent. Kira points between the two of us.

"How do you guys know eachother?" She asks as the line surges forward. She interlocks our arms with hers, and Cassidy takes my free arm, and Brooke Zachs. They drag us forward.

"Zach is Lauren's boyfriend," I blurt. Zach's eyes go wide, and I hear Lauren screech through the comms. I wince as she starts muttering threats in my ear.

"Oh, really?" Kira pulls her arm away from Zach's. His flustered face only lasts a second before he replaces it with his charming smile.

"Ah- yes! Mm-hmn. She's my... girlfriend," I can see the cringe in his eyes as he sputters the word out. I can't help but smirk a little. Kira puts on a pouty face.

"Fine. But hopefully you'll be available soon," She winks. I gag in my mouth. Even though I hate Zach, I would never wish upon him the fate of having Kira as a girlfriend. That's jujst hands down wrong.

"We'll see you ladies after," I save after I realize that Zach has gone slightly pale. "We need to go find our girls."

I'm pretty sure we run away faster than we did that timme in Mozambique, and that is definitely saying something. We dodge pedestrians, and I lead us around the outside of the building to a workers entrance.

"You do realize that with all these employees milling about," Zach gestures to the men and women sitting around the entrance smoking cigarettes or eating lunch, "That breaking into this door isn't the smartest idea yeah?"

I roll my eyes, and don't respond to him. I walk up to the door, and the guard shoots me a suspiscious look. Zach and I smile casually at him, like we belong there. I pull out my ceit card from my wallet. Zach watches in confusion and then amazement as I deftly change the settings to that of a Hale employee. I scan the door and it beeps open.

"Where'd you get that gadget?" Zach mumbles as we slide from the bright sunlight into the dark hall way.

"Where do I get all my gadgets?" I roll my eyes. Zach whistles low.

"Good thing Dez is on our team, eh?"

"This time," I mutter. He doesn't respond. He knows how quickly loyalties can change. This mission IMF and MI6 might be working hand in hand, but next week you never know.

"So, I'd strangle you in your sleep tonight," Zach starts, "But I think the girls are going to beat me to it."

I chuckle awkwardly, the noise echoing in the work corridor. "Yeah, about that. Sorry. First thought that popped to my mind."

Zach makes a face as we near the entrance to the museum foyer ahead. I push the door open just in time to catch Zach muttering, "Why would you even have that thought in your head?" Before his voice is drowned out by the buzz. I easily spot our class, and Zach and I make a beeline that way. We arrive just as our names are called. Mr. Derk assigns us a painting to study in groups before he sends us off.

I look at my list of people. Kira, Brooke, Acacia, Connor, Dallas, and someone named Trish. I sigh. At least I have Acacia with me. Joella, Zach and Lauren are in a group with Cassidy, Ethan and a couple other people I don't recognize. I mentally moan. None of us are in the same group as Ally.

My group is assigned the _Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe _By Claude Monet. We make our way to the Monet section of the museum.

"Austin, Ally was The Concert. And if my eyes aren't decieving me, she's without a group." Dez's voice rings in my ear. My eyebrows scrunch together.

"Say again?"

"Ally. Is. On. Her. Own. Mr. Derk didn't assign her a partner. I'm going to send you the feed. Stand by."

For a second static fills my ear, but it's quickly replaced by Ally's voice.

_"Mr. Derk, may I go on my own please? I study better independently," _the voice of an innocent and shy Ally says.

"_Of course Ms. Dawson. Shall I assign you the Vermeer again? You didn't seem to make much progress yesterday." _Mr. Derk's voice is almost cynical, and something about the tone throws me. I listen carefully.

"_I'm sorry. I'm doing my best, and trying my hardest. Honest." _Ally's voice sounds almost frightened, only I can't tell if she's acting or not.

"_Very well, Ms. Dawson. I just highly recomend that your best become better. Get along with it now."_

The feed cuts off, and is immediately replaced with Dez's voice. "See what I mean?"

I nod, knowing that he can see me through the cameras. "Dez, the camera in the Vermeer room I need looped to my phone. Let me know of any suspiscious activity," I mumble. Acacia slows her pace so she's walking beside me.

"Something wrong?"

I shake my head. "Ally, got assigned the target. _On her own. _Dez is going to loop me the feed."

Acacia nods stiffly. "Keep me posted," She starts to materialize back in to the crowd. At the last moment she looks back at me. "And boss?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything stupid."

I chuckle as she starts to chat up a conversation with Connor. I scan over the group, and my eyes fall on a short Latina who's reading Cheetah Beat rather than taking notes like what we're supposed to be doing. I immediately recognize her as Ally's friend. This must be the girl Trish. I smirk to myelf. Maybe something was going our way.

I casually walk by her, 'accidently' dropping my note papers by her. She looks up at the ruckus I'm causing.

"Watch it Blondie," She growls at me.

"Sorry," I say, quickly picking up the last of my papers. "I'm Austin."

"So?"

I'm thrown a bit by her frankness, but quickly re-compose myself. "What's your name?"

"Why do you want to know?" She scowls. I raise my hands in innocence.

"I'm sorry, I thought it was polite formalities to introduce yourself when you're the new kid," I don't know why, but this chick really gets on my nerves. Not even my cousins get under my skin like her. They just make me crazy. This girl makes me frustrated.

She rolls her eyes, sighs exasperatedly, but puts her magazine away. "I'm Trish."

I take the seat on the bench next to her, and pull out my notes. She pulls out hers as well. I start writing down some stuff, only to look up and see that she's not taking notes. She looks at me expectantly, and I just show the confusion on my face. She rolls her eyes.

"Well, can you hurry up so I can copy?" She asks me impatiently.

"Copy?" I ask. The concept was foreign to me. Not once in Oxford did anyone ask to copy my notes. Then again, none of them trusted the work of a twelve year old. Their loss.

"Yes dingbat. Copy," She says again really slowly. When I don't move, she sighs and snatches my papers out of my hand.

"Hey!" I reach for my papers, but she puts them out of reach. I could knock her out cold right now in seven different ways. I could call Acacia, and she could kill Trish six ways to Sunday with her magazine. One word and Joella would bust in here and scar her for life with her lipgloss. Even Lauren can be deadly when I need her to be. And yet, I just watch helplessly as she quickly jots down the answers I wrote.

"There," She hands me my papers back, reading over her copied answers and nodding in approval. I roll my eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to get the answers yourself? You know, so you actually learn?" I ask. She looks at me like I'm the crazy one.

"Why would I do that?"

I'm about to retort, when Dez's voice crackles to life in my ear. "Austin she's been joined."

Immediately I stand up, forgetting where I am. Trish looks at me weird. "Uh, sorry. I, um... uh, have to use the bathroom," I say, quickly running to the mens room. I bump into a boy coming out who I would put around my age. His bag goes flying, spilling the contents. Papers and electronics go flying.

"Oh, I am so sorry dude," I say, bending down to help pick up his papers. He waves me off.

"It's ok." As I pass him what looks like a microchip that popped out of his computer or something, I catch a good look at his face. For some reason, he's oddly familiar looking. Light brown hair, dark eyes. He seems pretty average Joe, but behing his thick black frames, something about the tilt of his cheek bones, or the slant of his nose. I just can't put my finger on it.

He collects the rest of his papers as I run to the bathroom. It's empty, and I lock the door. I pull out my cellphone after putting the toilet seat down and sitting on the lid.

As soon as I punch in my code, give a retinal scan, and do a DNA confirmation (My phone holds some VERY sensitive information) Dez's feed pops up. I turn the volume so that it wires to my ear piece, and turn it up loud.

The first thing I notice is Ally, writing in her journal. She looks exactly how she always does. But there's a boy sitting beside her. He's wearing a tailored suit, and I don't need Lauren to deduct that this guy is rich. Perhaps even as rich as me.

He has brown hair and blue eyes, and for some reason, I feel a spike of emotion as I see how close he sits next to Ally. I immediately lock the feeling in the deep recesses of my mind. No need for emotions to get involoved now.

"How is it going?" He asks with a charming smile. She smiles, but continues writing in her book.

"I'm working on it."

"That doesn't answer my question. I need to know, so I can alert Sammy. He won't get off my haunches about plans," The boy rolls his eyes.

"I'm sure you'll think of something, Elliot," Ally mutters. So that's his name. "What are you doing here anyways? I thought you and Sammy had another job."

"We took care of it. Uncle Eddy wasn't all that impressed with how we took care of it, but we took care of it all the same."

Ally stiffens, and I see Joella's group pass by. "You need to go. I'll call you later."

"Don't forget, Ally-Cat," Elliot says before disappearing. For some reason that hurt.

Just as Elliot is about to turn the corner, he stops and joins a boy waiting there for him. My eyes widen in recognition, but the feed cuts out, my phone returning to my screen saver.

"No, Dez! I need the feed again," I whisper shout. A few seconds later it pops up again, but it's too late. Elliot and the boy I bumped into coming into the bathroom are gone. Ally's left in her normal position, scribbling away in that book of hers.

"Damn it!" I curse as I punch the wall. My knuckles turn red and I shake my hand. It doesn't matter though. I know what I saw.

And then I know what I remembered.

I immediately scan the bathroom. The boy was in here right before me with a bag of papers and gadgets. School work? Probably. But possibly not.

"Dez, are there any other break ins on the surveillance?"

"None that I can find. I'll do another check and let you know."

"Good," I say as he cuts out. My eyes expertly scan the area, picking up on everything. It's a classic public restroom. White walls, white stall, white sink. The mirror is five by five, the light a flurescent one. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I shake the garbage, and nothing but paper towel rustle about. A piece of pink catches my eye on the top, and I grab a paper napkin and pick it up. The gum is still soft and warm, indication that it was thrown out recently. I smile and wrap it carefully, before sticking it in a pocket of my bag. As I exit the bathroom, Dez's voice returns in my ear.

"No other breaches."

"Keep an eye on it."

"Gotcha dude."

He clicks out as the clock strikes five, indicating that class is over. As I walk out to go find the others, Kira stops me. I personally stop a groan. "Hey Austin! Look, this next Friday I'm having a party, and it would be completely amazing if you and your cousins and Zach came," She bats her eyelashes at me.

My first instinct is to say no. And then I remember that I have to fit in.

Stupid cover.

"We'd love to come Kira!" I fake enthusiasim. Once again she doesn't seem to quite pick up on the fake part.

"Cool! See you later," She winks before disappearing with her posse. I breath a sigh of relief as the girls and Zach materialize beside me.

"What did the she-demon want?" Lauren wrinkles her nose. I roll my eyes.

"She invited us to her party next Friday, and we are going. And secondly, I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a donkey leg."

"First, why would you tell her we are going, and secondly, you wouldn't know if she was an empousa. You're a _boy." _Acacia says the word with slight distaste. Once again I roll my eyes.

"I thought you were against Percy Jackson."

Acacia blushes. "Well no one told me how awesome it was," She defends herself lamely. I just ignore her.

Twenty minutes later, we find ourselves on Joella's private jet, zooming towards Washington D.C. An hour later we walk through the pristine doors of IMF's HQ.

"Name," The lady at the front drones.

"Miss Potts should have brought an umbrella with her today," I say in the same voice. She looks up.

"Whatever for? There's not a cloud in the sky."

"Even Peter rabit knows better," I tells her. She goes back to typing, before the elevater in the far back of the room opens. The five of us enter, and the doors close. Joella punches a bunch of the buttons, in a random order. The lights go off for a moment, before flickering back on as we continue our decent pass the basement level.

"Austin what did you get today?" Joella asks as she twirls a golden lock on her finger.

"Ally is definitely not a normal student. I had my doubts, but now I know for sure. She wants the painting too, although I'm not sure why. There are three people together. Ally, a boy named Elliot, and another one named Sammy. I think that must be their team."

"Guys," Dez's voice rings out in the elevater, "The Elliot boy isn't just anyone. He's H. H. Elliot the VI. As in _a _Elliot."

Joella gasps. "Are you serious?"

"I thought he looked familiar," Zach muttered. I must be the only person who doesn't know him.

"Wait," I let my incompetence show, "Just who is this Elliot?"

Acacia rolls her eyes. "The Elliots are the owners of Elliot Industries, you know, only the biggest company ever? He's the heir to the company."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh." Lauren rolls her eyes too.

"Any ways, I found this, in the trash can," I hold up the piece of gum. They look at me like I'm crazy.

"That could be anyones," Lauren tells me.

"But it's not," I snap back. "I'm pretty sure it's this Sammy kid's gum. See, I bumped into him when I went into the bathroom. He was the only one there before me, and the gum was still warm when I got it. Then throught the feed Dez sent me, I saw the kid meet up with Elliot after Elliot finished talking to Ally."

The elevater doors beep open, and I'm greeted by my father. He smiles and hugs us.

"Kids! I saw that you had checked in. New mission?"

We nod. "We're going to use the DNA scanner and retreiver," I tell him. He nods and hugs me once more.

"Alright, I'll catch you later then."

I sigh as he walks away, immediately lost in the sea of workers. We make our way to the lab. I know I should be used to never having my parents around, but I miss them. Sometimes I wish we were just a normal family for once. And then I feel horrible. At least my parents are mainly lab workers. They are hardly ever in danger. Unlike Lauren's folks.

I stick the gum on the scanner, as we all make ourselves comfortable in the room.

"So, I think there's a possibility that Mr. Derk is in on this too somehow," I admit. They nod.

"We heard the feed too," Zach tells me. "Definitely a POI."

"And we need to check on this Sammy guy," I mutter. "He was so familiar. Lie I've seen himbefore."

"Where?" Acacia immediately sits forward. I shrug.

"I dunno." the machine beeps. "But I guess we're going to find out."

I pull up the file on him. His face fills the screen, as words fly to the side. I read his name. Samuel Goode. But that isn't what catches my attention.

_Deceased._

"Is it just me, or does this file say that this guy is dead?" Joella asks. I shake my head.

"This is him, well, younger," The picture was that of a twelve year old, but it was unmistakably the boy I ran into by the bathroom. "Positive."

"It says here that he died in a car crash," Lauren reads ahead. "Body was mangled beyond recognition. Father dead, Mother disappeared..."

I turn to Zach, noticing that he's very quiet. His face is passive, but slightly pale. I don't know if it's the lighting, but for the first time, I see Zach in a new light. The curve of his cheekbones, the slant of his nose...

It suddenly hits me before Lauren even reads it from the file.

"...And twin brother of Zachary Goode."

**Wassup? Hope you liked this chapter, and before you can ask, yes, Sam Goode from The I Am Number Four series. I realized he had the same name as Zach, and is one of my favourite characters, and he was perfect to fit this upcoming roll. Anyways, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!**

**Oh yes, and thank you for ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS! Woot-woot! Thank you guys! Please feel free to check out some of my other work!**


	8. Chapter 8

Silence is a weird thing, you know?

First, there's different kinds of silences. There is an awkward silence, in which you don't know what to say next. There are comfortable silences where you don't need to talk, but everything seems to be conveyed anyways.

And then there are, did-I-hear-that-correctly kind of silences. That is what envolopes us as my eyes shift from Lauren to Zach. His face is stony and silent.

"Wait, Zachary Goode as in Zach?" Lauren looks up, confused as always. We watch as Zach nods stiffly.

"You beter start explaining," My voice is rougher than usual. He sighs and rubs his eyes.

"What do you guys know about me? About my history?" He asks slowly.

"You're annoying," Lauren mumbles at the same time Joella says, "You're hot."

"You attended Oxford when you were eleven and graduated at fourteen," I say.

"And you work for MI6," Acacia finishes stating the facts. And then we pause and look at eachother. That's _all _we know. Zach sighs.

"I joined MI6 when I was ten. But before that, I attended Blackthorne institute."

"I've never heard of that school," Lauren frowns. "Wait, is it like the Gallagher academy that Joe, Acacia and I did our primer years of schooling?"

"Yeah but it's for assasins."

Again with that silence thing.

Acacia laughs. "Sure Zach. Are you telling me MI6 doesn't train it's agents as spies but rather as assasins?"

"Blackthorne institute has nothing to do with my current job," His voice is steely and detached. "It's a KGB operation."

"Wait, are you telling us that you're KGB?" Lauren's eyes are wide. Zach shakes his head.

"Used to be. I... got out. Cut my ties. I disappeared. Joined MI6 as an operative in exchange for protection. Sam got out too, but we split ways because he didn't want a spies life," Zach shakes his head.

"So he really is your twin?" I ask.

The smile that appears on Zach's face is almost gruesome. "Unfortunately."

"Why?" Acacia asks, analyzing things as always.

Zach shoots her a dark look. He doesn't answer for a long time. "At Blackthorne we were taught to specialize in certain areas. Sam was a techie. Even more so then Dez. If he's working against us, we don't have a chance."

"THere's always a chance," Lauren mutters, and I can almost see her calculating percentages in her head.

"So what now then?" joella sulks.

"We go with the plan," My voice is a whole lot more confident than I feel.

Lauren shakes her head. "But-"

"No buts." My voice is firm. I look at Zach. "So, you're a trained assasin. Your brother is a trained assisin's hacker?" He nods. "So why would a hacker be teaming up with a super rich kid, and Ally?"

Of course, no one has the answer. I sigh. We are interrupted by a knock on the door frame. I look up and am met by a familiar face. "I thought you were still in Miami."

"They're here right?" Agent Brandt's face expresses worry I haven't seen in a long time. The confusion plays on my face.

"Who are you talking about?" Acacia is just as confused as I am. Agent Brandt curses and runs a hand through hi dirty blonde hair, he turns to me, and the fear in his eyes makes my blood run cold.

"Your father is missing," He tells Acacia. "Ethan, Luther, and Benji. I had left for an hour to stop and pick up some ammo, and I came home and they were gone. Their comms are down, no communication. They're _off-grid."_

We all freeze. "My dad's missing?" Acacia's voice is tight. Her father is real close to her. Lauren squeezes her hand. She turns to Brandt.

"Is it...?"

He nods. "More than likely it's the same group that has your parents." He turns to me, "And your grandafather."

I punch the table in fury, and everyone looks at me. "We should be out there looking for them! Not babysitting some crummy painting!" I scream. I rub my eyes, and try to calm myself down.

"Austin we have our best agents-"

"Not succeeding with anything!" I yell and turn to Brandt. "Don't you see? They're targeting our family and our teams. We should be prepping, not attending bloody highschool!"

"It's the painting."

"And then to top it all off- wait, what?" I cut my rant off and glare at Brandt. He sighs.

"We believe," He says slowly, "That they are after the painting. That there must be some kind of code or something hidden in the painting. Which is why we want you watching it. If you catch the people behind the painting, then we might be able to save your family."

"Wait, so this is all connected?' I moan, rubbing my head, trying to ward off the headache that's starting to form.

"This has KGB written all over it," Acacia mutters.

"Could be Korean though," Brandt rebuked her. He looked at his watch. "Look kids, I need to go and inform our seniors of our current state. Head home and get some sleep, alright?"

He leaves us alone. Slowly, Acacia stands up, Lauren and Joella flanking her left and right, there for moral support. They leave the room slowly. I pick up a small USB that contains the files we were looking at. I turn back to see Zach still sitting in his chair, staring at the wall. I sigh.

"Hey Zach?"

"Yeah?" He doesn't look at me.

"What did you specialize in at Blackthorne anyways?" I ask, realizing he never told us. His eyes meet mine finally, and flash dangerously, giving me a chill.

"Torture," He states simply. "I specialized in executing torture."

**Hey! So sorry this is a shorter chapter, I just wanted to give some insight on what's going on with their mission, and do a bit of history. Also, Auslly will be happenning soon, I promise, but I don't want to rush anything and make this story seem stupider than it already is.**

**And please check out my three-shot that I just posted! It's Austin and Ally as well, a bit darker than my usual stuff, and based off of Go ask Alice. It's called Go ask Austin and Ally. Or you could check out my other Auslly fic, When the Good Girl is stuck with the Bad Boy.**

**Thank you for ALL the reviews! You guys make me so happy!**

**Hope you like, and please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

Two weeks passed quickly, to say the least, and we even kind of fit in. Sort of.

We've decided to lay low and just watch, especially since Ally is kind of on to us. Brandt has been at IMF HQ for the past two weeks, talking to pops and all that, so we've had the house to ourselves. Everyone's been kind of on edge since we learned about Zach. It's hard to treat him no differently. It's just that every time I look at him now, I try and automatically wonder what kind of killer he would make.

I pass all my classes with flying colors, much to the teachers dismay. Lauren managed to only cause four explosions in Physics (I don't even know how seeing as we don't exactly use chemicals) and Acacia prank called the president at lunch one day. Joella broke a kid's nose, and the kid is just lucky it wasn't his whole face. I swear, me and Zach are the only ones who can completely fit in.

"WWHHHAAAAA!" The pterodactyl shriek echoes through the vast library. Being Friday, Lauren claimed that she needed to "store up" on books for the weekend. In other words, she threatened us all to join her. Which is why Me, Zach, Acacia, and Joella are standing like idiots in the kiddie section, trying to find Lauren. As soon as we walked in the doors, she shrieked and ran off, leaving the rest of us lost.

"And she's found the Percy Jackson books," Acacia sighs as we follow the noise.

"I'd hate to hear the noise she makes when she sees them new and signed," Zach rubs his ears. I smirk.

"Trust me, it still haunts my nightmares," I shiver. y cousin can get pretty scary when it comes to books. And it doesn't help that she's overprotective of Percy Jackson too.

We walk around the corner and find her, flipping through a book and squealing. She looks up at us. "Guys! Guess what I found!"

"Percy Jackson?" we all drone in unison. This causes another shrill squeal to come from her, and we all wince. I watch in amusement as she pulls eight books off the shelf, and adds them to her huge pile.

"Dude, you do realize that we are on a mission right? When are you planning on reading all of those?" I ask her. She rolls her eyes.

"Not like we have plans tonight," She shrugs, pulling Unwind by Neil Shusterfield off the shelf. I bite my lip. My cousins might think that I told Kira we couldn't make it to her party last week. And I did. But I didn't tell them that she was throwing another one tonight and invited us again. And I might have said yes...

My cousins catch the guilt flash across my face, and Joella crosses her arms. I gulp. She only ever crosses her arms when she's deciding on the best way to interrogate someone.

"What is it?" Joella purrs, her blue eyes flashing. I put on an overly cheery smile.

"Um, nothing! Nothing at all. Yup, totally free tonight. No plans," I say as smoothly as possible.

Zach rubs his temples, putting it all together. "Dude," He complains, "Couldn't you have said no?"

"Hey, you didn't see how crazy she was, and after Beijing, I have every right to say no to crazy ladies!" I shiver at the memory. Acacia rolls her eyes.

"C'mon Austin, that was years ago. And I'm pretty sure Kira has nothing on those old ladies," Acacia says. I make a face at her.

"You weren't the one thrown into the spice cart!"

"Yeah but you-"

"Guys!" Lauren raises her voice. "Stop arguing and help me with this predicament. I'm facing major issues now that we have plans tonight," Lauren tells us seriously.

"Definitely wear purple because it looks sexier with your skin tone, yellow makes you look blotchy," Joella says right away. Acacia hands her a slim knife.

"Go with knives instead of guns, it's easier to conceal."

"What's with me in yellow?" Lauren looks confused at her yellow shirt. Joella bites her lip, and I hold back a laugh. Lauren shakes her head. "You know what, never mind. My predicament is that I have no idea what books to put back since I can't read all of them!" She whines. I roll my eyes.

"Just put the Percy Jackson back, seeing as you've read them several dozen times," I mutter. Lauren shoots me such a steely glare that I shut up.

"How dare you even suggest that Percy Jackson be returned," She hisses. She sticks her nose up in the air. "You know what? I don't need to read the Lorie Legacies. Nico is way hotter than Adam, Sam, and Nine anyways," She drops four books off.

We head over to the checkout, and Lauren signs out the books. I raise my eyebrow at Zach as he offers to carry her towering stack of books. He shrugs at me. "What? I'm being a gentleman. More than I can say for you."

"Uh-huh," I find myself wearing the knowing smile I always see Joella wearing

"So, what time do we have to be at Kira's?" Acacia asks me as the BMW beeps open. I Stop and pat my pockets, looking for the keys. I certainly didn't end the car. I turn back and see Acacia hopping into the drivers seat. I walk over.

"Keys. Now."

"Nope," She tells me as she starts the car. It revs to life. "Either get in, or walk home," She smirks at me. "You're getting rusty cuz," She smirks at me.

I roll my eyes, but hop in the passenger side while Zach, Lauren and Joe get in the back. I put my seat belt on. And then lock it. And then I grab the handle on the door, and brace myself for the worst.

You see, you never EVER want to be driven by any of my cousins. Acacia speeds like there's no tomorrow. It's mostly out of habit from having to out maneuver (Or in Acacia's dictionary out SPEED) cops on missions. Joella on the other hand drives slower than a snail, sitting behind the wheel white knuckled and never surpassing thirty miles an hour. And then driving with Lauren is just hands down scary because she always daydreams, and has no regards to the rules of the road.

In other words, I hardly ever let my cousins drive me.

Three speeding tickets (In a fifteen mile stretch) And one court date later (Which Acacia is planning on threatening Dez into hacking their records) We finally get home, with less than an hour to get ready for the party. We pile into the kitchen, where Dez is tinkering with a calculator. They don't even say hello to Dez, before my cousins raid the pantry. Zach places the books on the counter, and I reach for the Nutella jar and a clean spoon, already knowing what horrible concoction my cousins are planning on making us as soon as they pull out the blender.

"How was the library?" Dez doesn't look up from his magnifiers. I watch Acacia pull kale and Chard out of the the fridge while Joella grabs ground flax, and Lauren start peeling peaches.

"Fine," I say as I scoop a generous amount of the chocolately goodness into my mouth. I'm the only one other than Dez that will eat nut Ella, so I just eat it straight out of the jar. "You going to come with us tonight?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No," The girls say in unison (Cue the shivers) as they drop a bunch of the greens and peaches into the blender. I watch, my stomach threatening to barf as the green mixture swirled in the blender. The peach gives it the color of puke. I can tell that Zach is queezy from looking at it too.

As They walk to the freezer to pull out the frozen berries (That's another thing about their smoothies, they will throw EVERYTHING healthy they can find in it, not caring how gross it is) I covertly throw my next scoop of nutella in the blender. Zach raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything, understanding that you need nutella to make their smoothies edible.

"-With the pink shoes, or maybe the guide pumps. Then again, I think-"

"Joe, this is a high school party, not one of your English balls," Acacia rolls her eyes as the three reappear carrying bags of cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and plums. I gag in my mouth as they toss it all in, and then hit the grind button. When they turn around, I throw in another scoop for good measure.

Joella suddenly spins on me, narrowing her eyes. I gulp, terrified that they caught me. Once they caught me throwing a nectarine in their smoothie, and they full on flipped. Apparently you can out anything but nectarines in. Like I would know that.

Finally, her hand juts out and snatches the nut Ella spoon, which is resting in my mouth, and the jar from my hand. With one swift movement, she tosses it into the trash.

"Hey I was eating that!" I shout. She shakes her head at me, as though I'm a little kid who doesn't understand (Even though I'm nine months older than ALL of them.).

"Honey," She places a hand on my shoulder. "You don't seem to get that nutella is full of chemicals more harmful than some of Lauren's concoctions. It's just as bad as-"

"Peanut butter and jams," I finish for her, knowing the sentence by heart after so many years of them repeating it. See, my cousins also have this thing against store bought packaged foods. I don't see why. Peanut butter is amazing. But they don't think so. And for safety's sake, I try to cross them as little as possible.

"Guys, back to focusing," Lauren says as she stops the blender and Acacia gets out six cups. "Why do we have to actually GO to Kira's party anyways?"

"Normally, we wouldn't," Dez spills. "But tonight's an exception. Tonight Ally's going."

"So?" Acacia looks up from pouring the smoothie.

"So," I drawl out, "Ally is a girl of routine from what we've seen. And let me tell you that she never ever EVER goes to parties. And, she only accepted AFTER I told Kira we would go."

"Coincidence?" Zach asks. I give him a look.

"I think not."

"So, you want us to go to the party to stalk Ally even more so than what we do already?" Joella asks dubiously, handing me, Zach, and Dez a tall glass. We all wrinkle our nose at it, but smile a fake smile when she hands it to us.

"No, we're going in order to figure out why she changed her routine," Dez says. "She's a logical girl, and she wouldn't just change her routine to see us. She can watch us enough at school. Something else must be going on tonight, and-"

"She's using the party as a cover," Acacia clues in. We all nod and sip our smoothie, which actually tastes pretty darn good thanks to the nutella. Apparently to good.

"What the heck," Joella spits it out, and Lauren makes a face at the cup. Acacia gags. "Who put... oh no you didn't."

Joella turns to me, the most terrifying look EVER on her face. I gulp and run away as fast as I can. Zach's laughter follows me, as well as Dez's shouts of encouragement. I roll my eyes.

A black eye, and half pound of concealor later (Trust me when I say that you don't want to know what for) and a clean set of clothes, I find myself in the car again with Lauren and Acacia. Zach, Joella and Dez are taking a different car. I fasten my seat belt securely again. This time Lauren insisted on driving.

"Lauren, are you sure you want to drive?" I ask, my voice might be a smidgen wobbly. "You can always read if you sit in the passenger seat," I try to bribe her.

She smriks at me. "Relax Austin."

Trust ME, I was anything BUT relaxed.

And then she went.

It started slow. Acacia of course was completely used to her driving, so she didn't even have her seat belt lock. On the other hand, I was grinding my teeth to dust, bracing myself for the worst to come.

"Hey guys, you aren't going to believe what happened today!" Lauren squealed, turning to face me, and with that the whole car jerked over a lane, cutting a van off who honked his horn irritated. I wave an apology to him, before trying to calm my cousin down.

"Nico died," Acacia much blessed sarcastically. Nico is Lauren's book crush, and has been for the past four years.

"What?!" Lauren suddenly turned around in her seat, taking her hands off the wheel, but still pressing the gas as she turned to face Acacia who was hiding a laugh. "NICO CAN NEVER DIE!"

Her scream blocked the honking of cars as our vehicle swerved without a driver. Panic filled me, a familiar adrenaline rush as I reach over and grab the wheel.

"Lauren!" I shout, trying to get back in our lane. "Focus on driving please!"

She turns around, her face red in fury, but sits in silence, both hands knuckle white on the wheel. My eyes go wide with fear. "No no no no! Acacia, you did not just out hear into a funk about Nico while we're driving, did you?"

"Yup," My cousin says nonchalantly. She obviously doesn't see the danger here, as Lauren runs a stop sign. When she's mad, all rules go out the window.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" I screech as Lauren run a red light, the traffic in the other lanes screeching their tires to try and avoid her. I grab onto the handle as we spin, but Lauren keeps on trudging forward, her face passive of emotions.

We near a track crossing, where a couple cars are waiting patiently because the thing lowered. I'm about to relax, knowing that we'll come to a stand still, when Lauren suddenly jerks into the opposite lane. Thank goodness all cars stopped on the other side of the tracks.

"Lauren, what are you doing?" I try to ask as calmly as possibly, but it comes out more as a squeak. She doesn't respond, but instead guns it a little faster.

I see the train coming, and if I do my math correctly (Which, let's face it. I _always _do my math correctly.) we have less than nine seconds to cross the tracks, and in order for a car to clear it, we need four of those seconds. And we are at least five seconds away.

The train let's out a whistle of warning, while I let out a scream, and Acacia yawns in boredom in the back seat. I close my eyes, fists clenched tight, ready to die by being pounded by forty-two tons of hurtling metal. Lauren floors it, and jerks the car across the tracks, swerving around the stick, and passing mere millimeters before the train. We cross, and she quickly glides into our proper lane, while other cars gape at us in shock. I don't blame them. I must be as pale as a sheet.

The rest of the ride passes as a blur to me, all I can think about was how close that train was, how stubborn Lauren was, and how bored Acacia was. We pull up two blocks away from the house, and Lauren and Acacia get out as the others pull up behind us. They open my door when they realize that I'm still in the car.

"You OK Austin?" Dez asks me as he manages to pry my hand away from the handle. I get out slowly, and swallow, my eyes still somewhat wide from the experience.

"I'm driving with you and Zach next time," My voice is several octaves higher than I remember it. I finally manage to shake.e it off, and we head inside our first ever party.

The music is blaring, and I cringe, because it's not even good music. As soon as we walk in the door, the familiar smell of alcohol floods us, and we see people making out everywhere, much to our disgust. Kira sees us, and stumbles over.

"Hey guys!" She slurs, her dress too short, drunk beyond help. "Dont'you guys look good," She runs a finger along my jaw line, and I shiver in disgust. I take a step back.

"Uh, hey Kira.". I say.

The others mumble a couple of 'heys' and I'm pretty sure Joella mumbles under her breath, "Slut.". I nudge her in the ribs, reminding her to play nice.

"Drinks are that way," Kira points to the kitchen. Then she winks at me and Zach. "And you two come find me later."

We both shiver, finally agreeing on something for once. We make a huddle, Joella grabbing some water bottles and handing it around so we don't look suspicious.

"Here's the plan. Acacia and I are on Ally. Joella, you distract anyone who tries to talk to Ally, and Zach you keep a perimeter sweep. Dez, yout might need to help Joella with distractions. Got it?"

"Got it boss," They all say, switching the comms on in their ears. Dez hands out mints to everyone. I take the little white thing, and look at it curiously.

"Dez, why do we need mints?" I ask, putting them in my pocket. He rolls his eyes.

"They aren't mints. It's a new thing I've been working on. It should erase short term memory, in case someone sees something they aren't supposed to," He tells us. We nod in understanding, being sure not to loose the little white tablets.

"Mission commenced," I mutter as we disperse. Acacia and I walk around. It's a huge house, with a pool and everything. I'm pretty sure that the entire highshool is here. I hear Acacia whisper into the comm.

"Ventaltion shaft access is from the kitchen, behind the white couch in the living room, and I saw one outside by the heater," She mumbles as she takes a sip of her drink. I nod subtly.

"Heating ducts won't be of use for us," I mutter as I eye the small panel. "But be aware that most of the exits are blocked."

"Already noted," She says. She takes another sip of her drink, and then stops short. "I have eyes on target."

I look where Acacia is looking. Sure enough, Ally is standing in a corner, holding a red solo cup, and is talking with her friend Trish, and surprisingly Dallas. A rush if jealousy passes through me for some unknown reason, but I push it aside. Tonight's about business, and business only.

She's wearing a dark red dress, that is probably the most modest thing anyone except for my cousins is wearing. Her hair is straightened, and her makeup is dark. Once again I can't help but marvel at how good she is with switching her personality. I hear Acacia comm in for Joe and Dez.

A minute later we watch the two of them walk by, Dez 'accidently' spilling his water on Trish. The two start to yell at each other, insults flying every which way. Joe takes the moment to say hi to Dallas. I hear her over the calm.

"There you are Dal! I was looking everywhere for you," She purrs seductively. You can tell he's been taken off guard. All week he's been pining after my cousin who can't stand him. And now here she is flirting with him. The two eventually leave the scene, and I hear Joella say, "She's all yours boss."

I gulp and nod to Acacia that I'm going in. Ally is watch Dez and Trish in amusement.

"There you are Dez," I pretend to be exhasperrated. I hand him the car keys.

"You forgot these," I tell him. He looks at me before clueing in, and grabs them.

"Thanks bud," He tells me.

"Oh, so it does have manners," Trish says sarcastically. Suddenly Dez turns back to her, and they resume their argument. I shake my head, and turn to face Ally.

"Hey, was sup?" I ask her. She smiles.

"Nothing. Crazy party huh?"

"Totally," I say, sipping my water. I don't know why, but I've already run out of things to say. This girl just makes me so nervous, and I don't know why.

Eventually. we started talking about drama class. The play is actually next week, as is the fall ball. My palms are sweaty, and I don't know why. I'm almost grateful when Ally looks at her watch.

"Well, won't you look at the time. I need to go. I have to be home before curfew," She says kind of sadly. "Will I see you around?"

"Definitely," I nod my head a little too vigorously. She smiles that gorgeous smile before leaving, walking out the back sliding door. I just stare after her, glad she's gone so I don't look like an idiot, but wishing she was still here too.

"Earth to Moon," Acacia hisses in my ear before appearing beside me. "We have to follow her. Now."

"Why?" I ask confused. "She said she was going home."

Acacia rolls her eyes. "Man, that chick really messed you up, didn't she? Did you not catch anything? Her watch was broken. And she left out of the freaking back door. She isn't going home," Acacia says, and as I go through my bank of memories, I realize that she's right. How did I not catch any of that? It was right in front of me. I shake my head.

"Let's go," I mutter tersley.

"Finally," I hear her grumble. We walk outside, into the somewhat brisk air. I have no idea where the others are, I just hope they stayed on focus. I catch a flash of red disappear into an alley, and we follow stealthily. As we walk, we discard our clothes, revealing black shirts and pants. Acacia hands me an extra silenced pistol, as I pass over some canisters of sneak gas.

Ally's silhouette walks purposefully through the shadows. Again, this is a different girl than what she let's others see. Acacia and I follow at a good distance, until Ally stops. We watch for several minutes as she does nothing, before a big burly man steps out of the shadows. I squint through the gloom, but can't make out his face.

I turn my ear piece to listening mode, and turn up the frequency. Acacia does the same thing.

"Why did you want to meet?" Ally asks tersely. I strain to listen for the answer.

"Boss wants you to know that he's being impatient. We need it."

Ally swore, something Austin never thought he would hear her do. "Tell him I'll have it to him as soon as possible. Are you guys going to take care of the problem I told you about?"

The man nodded stiffly. "It's all set, but we wanted you to clarify that they aren't just normal kids who seem suspicious."

I can see Ally roll her eyes, and then she holds up something that makes me do a double take. It's one of Dez's cams I planted at the Hale. "I'm pretty sure normal kids don't have access to this stuff," She gives it over. "I think they might be CIA."

"Possible," The man mutters, before closing his fist around the tiny camera. He outs it in his pocket. "I'll see you soon, Ms. Dawson."

He pretty much melts into the shadows. Ally does a quick scan of the area, and me and Acacia duck down. After I can't to five, I look up slowly. Ally's no where to be seen, and Acacia quickly runs to where she was, looking to see if she had run down another alley. She turns back to me and quickly shakes her head. A string of swears escape my mouth. I comm for the others.

"we lost her," I mutter, disappointed in my work. "Any tabs?"

"I lost her friend," Dez tells me. "She said she had to go to the bathroom, but never came back.

"The perimiter still seems fine," I hear Zach mumble frustrated. Lauren quickly agrees.

I curse, before taking a deep breath. "OK, listen up. Acacia and I'll head back home, you guys wrap up hear. Do a sweep, and make sure nothing is left that can be traced back to us."

Slowly, Acacia and I walk dejectedly back to the car. We actually are a lot closer than we thought. As she gets in, I do too, slamming the door shut. Both of us are in a fowl mood for being outsmarted. But as I enter the key into the ignition, I notice something, just the tiniest thing. It's almost as the car hiccups to life. Most would just brush it off, but I know my cars better than anything. And that isn't normal.

Acacia notices my expression, and looks at me concerned. "What is it?"

The car is humming fine now, but something wasn't right. I turn it back off, but it won't die. I pull the key out, and the car still stays on. Acacia looks at me weirdly.

"What's going on?"

"Get out of the car," My voice is so authorative she doesn't even question it. We both open our doors, and hop from the vehicle quickly. Acacia watches me confused as I open the hood.

Everything seems perfectly normal. Nothing is out of place. But something catches my eye. The lid to my spark plug container was put on perfectly. Last time I cleaned it, I had put it on crooked.

My fingers deftly unscrew it, and I open it slowly. Instead of a spark plug though, wires spewed out of the container. It was hooked-up to my ignition. It doesn't even take Acacia three seconds to move them over, revealing a shiny clock face, with seven seconds on it. Six. We look at each other.

"Bomb!" Acacia says, slamming the hood down. "You activated it when you started the car!"

Both of us turn on our heels, sprinting as far as possible from the car. Who would place a bomb there? And then I remember Ally's conversation, and shivers run down my spine. We are her problem. And this was how they were going to get rid of us.

We both sprint, neither of us sure how big the explosion is going to be. But I'm mentally counting down in my head. Three.

Ally is definitely working for someone now. Although I can't be sure who. The man had a neutral accent, and I never saw his face. This isn't any easier. Two.

And Ally definitely had training. How else did she find my camera? If she has Zach's brother working with her too, then there's a good chance he's the one who had found it. She think we're CIA, but what if she finds out who we really are? One.

Suddenly, everything got a lot more complicated. Half of my family's missing, and suddenly a random girl in my school isn't so random anymore. Zach was never who he said he was, and he has a crazy smart twin brother too. And to top it all off, this craziness all seems to be about some stupid painting. I just can't figure out why.

My mind is still swirling as a loud crack reaches my ears, a heat wave following and slamming into my back. I'm faintly aware of Acacia screaming, and me falling, my body like a rag doll as is hits the asphalt. My skin rips from my body in places, my face and my arm bounding off the ground. The force flips me over, and I fall on my leg funny, a scream ripping itself from my throat.

My vision is fuzzy, and my hearing gone by the time my beat up body halts to a stop. And as pieces of ash rain down on my bloodied face, I finally black out.

**And so it starts! Sorry for taking so long, been busy with school and my other fan fictions. Anyways, please let me know what you think and thank you so. such for all your reviews!**


	10. Chapter 10

Fog. I'm walking through fog.

Or not so much walking, but more or less existing. Being. There.

Occasionally if I watch the foggy haze hard enough, I can make out images, or shapes. But they quickly disappear into a wisp of smoke just as fast, leaving me questioning whether I've really seen them or not.

The first time I make out something in the fog, it's colours. Flashing red and blues. Echoes pound in my head, but nothing distinct reaches me. I try to move, but I can't. I can only watch as the images fade to grey again.

The next time the fog actually lifts, but something funny is happening. I'm moving, even though I'm not. Faces I've never seen before swarm out of the nothingness, followed by Joella, Lauren, and Zach. Where's Acacia? I can't remember.

The last time I see through the fog, it's dark out. But I can actually feel a pain in my head, something I didn't feel before. Again I cannot move, but she's there.

Ally's there.

I'm in a room, not my room or my cousins. Everything is a painful white. My eyes hurt, and I close them shut. Everything seems too loud. This time I want to float back into the nothingness.

But before I quite return to the empty fog, I feel something soft and warm brush against my temple. And an angelic voice that belongs to the one and only Ally Dawson say, "I'm sorry."

But it's nothing more than a dream.

Or maybe a memory.

_Beep._

The sound of dripping makes me shut my eyes harder. A moan escapes my mouth.

_Beep._

I try to roll over to turn off my alarm clock, when I realize I can't. My eyes snap open as I try to jerk upright, but I'm restrained. A shot of adrenaline pumps through me, as I try to get out.

_Beep, beep, beep._

I finally manage to look at my surroundings, and the first thing I notice is the strange computer screen above me with a funny line that squigles up and down. It seems to be moving faster every second. The incessant beeping becomes faster.

The door flies open, and a nurse with red hair and thick glasses comes in. Immediately I sigh in relief as I recognize her. I notice the beeping slow down, and realize that it must be connected to my heart rate.

"Austin you're awake!" The nurse smiles, looking less flustered now that she see's my increased heart rate wasn't due to any malfunctions. "How are you feeling sweetie?"

I notice that the reason I must have been restrained is because my limbs are strapped to the bed. Several IV's feed my arms, and tubes are connected up in places you don't want to know about. For the first time, I notice the white cast up my left leg, and the weird greenish hue parts of my skin have. A line of fresh stitches run up the side of my ribcage right under my right arm.

"What happened Donna?" I ask Dez's mother. She works in the medical department of IMF. We must be in a public hospital, although I suspect that Donna is the only surgeon tending to me.

"What can you remember sweetie?" She furrows her eyebrows as she asks me. I close my eyes, and try to look, but all I can see is that haze.

"An explosion," I finally say, as the sound comes to me rather than the image. I try to dig deeper. "Ally."

Donna nods sympathetically. "I'm sorry hun. We should have had better survellance on you guys. Brandt is beating himself up over it. Somehow they rigged a bomb in your hood so that when you started the ignition, it activated the bomb. Thankfully, there were no fatalities."

"Where's Acacia?" I ask, recalling that she was there. Donna turns to the door, and as though on cue, Lauren, and Joella come in.

Lauren and Joella look like they haven't slept in days, but the smile on their faces is genuine. I frown though as only the two of them come in.

"Where's Acacia?" I'm starting to get worried now. Joella shakes her head.

"Don't worry Austin, she's fine. Unfortunately, she needed some skin grafts on her one shoulder, because she got burnt so badly. It's left her bed ridden. But she's in much better condition than you are."

A rush of relief courses through me. I turn back to Donna. "What's the extent of our injuries?"

"Well, other than the skin graft, Acacia thankfully had nothing more than a slight concussion. You, on the other hand, are a completely different story," She tells me.

I gulp. "Lay it on me."

"Well," She looks at her clipboard. "You rip the muscle in your left calf, as well as splintered that shin. You punctured your right lung, and a piece of the car sliced the same side, which explains you stitches. You suffered some brain trauma,but thankfully after the past four days of rest, it seems to havfe worn off. You nervous sys-"

"Wait," I cut Donna off. "Did you say four days?"

Joella smirks. "If getting four days of peace of quiet means knocking you out, we should do it more," she laughs.

"Excuse me, but I'm not the noisy one," I roll my eyes as the girls snicker. "Seriously though. Four days? That makes it what, Wednesday night?" I do the math in my head. Lauren shrugs,

"Actually it's about four in the morning on Thursday."

"Thursday?!" I try to get up again, but am restrained by the stupid straps. "The plays tomorrow! And the Fall Ball!"

"No shiz Sherlock," Joella says. "Thankfully no one has made a move on the Vermeer."

Donna's watch suddenly beeps, and her eyebrows raise when she looks at it. She turns back to me, and begins to loosen the straps that restrain me. And then to my surprise she starts to take off my cast.

"Um, Donna?I know that you're the doctor and everything, but don't I still need that?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"Dennis created a new invention while you were asleep. It's a prototype, but due to the urgency of the situation, your parents signed for it," She tells me, removing the cast and revealing my leg.

Or at least, part of my leg.

"We surgically removed your splintered shin and replaced it with this," She gestures to the cool metal that covers about a foot of where my left shin used to be. I run my fingers over it, unaccustomed to the strange thing.

And then Donna lifts my leg, allowing me to see the wires that run into the muscle.

"Dennis made it so that it's holding together your ripped muscle too. Your skin is still there, it's just been tucked underneath the metal. It wires into the shredded tissue though, so it takes off the stress of when you use it," She informs me as I stare blankly at my leg. "Theoretically of course."

"Can it ever go back to normal?" My voice cracks. Screw the mission. I would have rather had that stupid painting burned than loose my shin and muscle. How could my parents have signed for this? Donna rubs my back slowly.

"Of course hun," She smiles smally. "Once things calm down for a bit, as long as you don't damage it anymore, we should be able to replace the shin with bone again, and allow the muscle to re-heal properly. This just makes you be able to have use of the leg temporarily."

I nod slowly, swallowing the lump in my throat. I suppose it's just for a little bit. And then I will have my real leg back. I just can't injure it anymore.

"Well kiddos, I want to stay, but I'm needed to help with Acacia's graft. I'll see you guys after school," She smiles before leaving the room. At almost the exact instant that she walks out the door, Dez and Zach walk in.

"Austin!" Dez runs forward and engulfs me in a hug. I smile and hug him back. "Hey man."

"My mom didn't embarrass me, did she?" He asked, cringing slightly. I manage to chuckle.

"No, you're good man," I tell him. Zach nods towards me, and I do the same for him.

"Good to see you up," He tells me. I smile.

"Good to be up," I tell him. They all look tired and worn out. "Give me stats guys," I tell them as I begin to pull the wires and needles out from me.

"No action at all Hale wise. Not even a false alarm," Dez says. I sigh in relief.

"Any word on Ally?"

Lauren and Joella share a look, before Lauren turns to me and says, "Ally has been at school acting completely normal. Unfortunately we don't have enough evidence to take her in," Lauren scowls. I shake my head.

"That's because she's good. The guys she's working for, are good too. Good plus good equals no evidence," I sigh. Zach's brow furrows.

"What makes you think she's working for someebody?" He asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

I finish pulling the last IV from my arm, and manage to sit completely u[pright. My muscles are stiff and sore, and so I stretch gently. "Snippets of her conversations point in that direction. Also, the man she met with on Friday seemed to be a messanger relaying information from a superior. And she came and visited me while I was here," I tell them.

"Wait, what?" Dez asks, eyes wide. "How'd she get in? I designed the security for your room myself!"

I shrug. "I don't know, but she apologized as though she didn't really want to blow me up. Makes me think there is someone behind the scenes pulling strings."

"Like a spider in a web," Lauren mutters, quoting Sherlock Holmes again.

"Precisley," I say. But we can't let them win. We need to get the Vermeer before they do. Or at least figure out why they want it," I tentatively place my feet on the cool floor, and apply a bit of pressure. My muscles groan, but holdsteady, even with the new shin.

"Should we go in tonight?" Zach offers. Ishake my head.

"We wouldn't stand a chance against their security, with, or without Dez's help," I say. "And, it's just too packed."

"We need to access it when the pop[ulation level is minimum," Lauren mumbles. I nod.

"Tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?" Dez asks confused. Taking a quick breath, I stand up and quickly walk over to the table. My shin hurts, and I almost trip, but I make it, leaving heavily on the table top. Using my left arm, I brush the cups away, and grab some paper. I reach for the pen with my right hand as they crowd around.

"Tomorrow night isn't just the Fall Ball," I tell them, "But also the premiere of the play."

I begin to write numbers down on the paper, caluculating numbers in my head. I approximate a couple, but for the most part, my numbers are accurate to the last decimal. I scrawl another number, and Lauren points to the .07.

"It'd be .08," She tells me, scanning over my equations. I check over my work, and raelize that she's right. I quickly fix the mistake.

"And so," I mutter as I write the last number on the page. Most of them just look at it blankly, but Lauren quickly flits over my calculations. She nods her heaed slowly.

"You're right," She mumbles.

"About what?" Joella looks at the big numbers confused. I don't blame her. Mathematics and Physics were never her forte.

"The majority of the populatio, taking into consideration children and younger ones, shall be at the school tomorrow to see the play. Knowing Marino, they'll hire a good force of officers to keep the party in check," I point to another one of my equations. "Meaning that-"

"We're robbing the Hale tomorrow."

I turn around to see a familiar head of red hair that is too short to be Dez. Acacia rolls in, a shiny wheelchair supporting her. Bandages cover her shoulder, but she's smiling.

"Donna told me you were awake, so I threw a fit until she let me come visit," She explained as I finally smiled a big smile. "Nice to see you got off your lazy butt," She jokes at me. I laugh.

"Good to see you Ace," I tell her, using the nickname I made for her when we were little. Being amazing at sports, it was my very un-original nickname for her. I stopped using it when I turned ten though. Don't know why.

"Planning our next move," Acacia asks, rolling over. She takes my papers with my calculations and looks at them blankly for a second. And then, much to my horror, she rips theminto pieces.

"Hey!" I protest, eyes wide. Acacia rolls her eyes.

"Wheelchair or not, I can still beat you up," she warns me, sending me into silence, and Zach into a fit of laughter. I mutter something under my breath, but she sends me a glare, and for health reasons, I shut-up.

"So your saying that tomorrow, we should get the painting while during the premiere of a play in which you play the lead role?" Joella asks incredously.

"With any luck, we'll grab and go and get to the ball before intermission. I'll be able to be in the second half, and no one will suspect a thing," I figure. "Connor, my understudy, will just have to be prepared."

"Let's hope," Zach mutters.

We spend the next couple of hours studying blue prints and figuring out plans. By the time we're ready to head to school, we have our usual foolproof plan ready.

Sore does not describe how I feel as I climb out of my car, and into the parking lot of Marino High. I'm burning. And not just because of my good looks. Zach ran me through a couple of excersises to wake up my dormant muscles this morning, and now I'm beginning to regret it. But I should look at the plus side. I can walk,can't I?

Joella had picked out my outfit, it being cool, yet comfy so as not to put strain on my stitches. he shirt is a loose blue and white stripped shirt, that has a couple of buttons down the front. I'm wearing black skinnies and vanns to finish off the outfit.

Because the sleeves of the shirt are only three-quarter legnth, some of my stitches and bruises show. But Acacia tells meto leave them uncovered, because they make me look 'tuff.' I just think she's been listening to Joella for too long.

With myleft hand I hold a slim, silver cane, that is attached to my wrist. I don't need it to walk, but when I stand it's good for me to put my weight on it so that I don't strain the machineryin my shin too much.

Surprisingly, I didn't get burnt like Acacia did, but I do have quite the blue jaw from hitting my face on the ground. Ruffling my hair, and sliding on my aviaters, I step outof my car, the others hot on my heels.

Acacia is wearing one of my loose, baggy t-shirts and sweats, because she still has the bandageson her skin grafts. Lauren and Joella finally look rested, and wear simple summer dresses. The first time I saw them I did a double take. It's almost impossible to get Lauren into a dress.

Zach is rocking the bad boy look to finish off our group. AsI wince at the sunlight, I catch people staring at us and whispering. Whenever I look their way though, they immedietaly get quiet.

As we walk through the halls of Marino High, peopl look at us, but we ignore them, walking purpposefully. I don't know what they know, but I do know that it must be better than the truth.

And then I see her, talking with Trish at her locker. As we walk by, she looks up slowly.

And the look on her face is p[riceless.

At first it's shock, and her mouth hangs open in surprise. She quickly closes it, but her eyes are still wide. And then a look close to something like admiration fills them. But she's still surp[rised. I would be to if I was her.

As we pass I smirk at her, raising my eyebrows slightly. And it manages to convey everything.

I'm Austin Moon for crying outloud.

It's a lot harder to kill me then that.

**Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Life's been crazy. All I can suggest is that you read some of my other fics in between the wait. Yeah, you guys should do that. Hope you guys like, and pretty please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Warning: House of Hades Spoiler!**

"I HATE HIM!"

"Shhh, Lauren calm-"

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! THIS IS NOT A CALMING DOWN SITUATION!" My cousin sobs. I pat her back awkwardly, as Joella carefully pries the fateful book from her fingers.

"Lauren, N-"

"Don't say his name!" She hisses at Acacia. My red-headed cousin gulps, her green eyes going comically wide. I would laugh if the circumstances would allow it.

It's currently lunch time, and it's Friday. The day of the play. Drama students get the rest of the day off, and Lauren decided to use the free time to finish off her new book which she just bought. Not the smartest idea. I wince as several students walk by and shoot us strange looks.

"Lauren, you're drawing attention," Joella tried to calm her down. Funny thing is, despite the situation where in, Lauren sobbing, and Joella and Acacia flustered as can be, they all still look stunning. And then there's me, who probably looks like I've ran a thousand miles. Seriously, you've never had to hold my cousin down when she's hysterical. It could qualify as my physcial training at IMF.

"But, h-he's _gay!" _She whispers the word like it's evil. I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Lauren, Nico Di Angelo is a frikkin book character!" I finally loose it. She scowls at me.

"Yeah, onyl the love of my life for the past four years!" She wails. "No big deal!"

I sigh, but shut my mouth, knowing that I'll never win this argument with her. When she starts talking about Nico, you can never get a word in. Zach walks around the corner, his physics textbooks in hand. He had left about thirty minutes ago to try and find his, after he left it in the library.

"Hey I-" His voice immediately stops and his eyes go wide as he takes in the sight.

"Nico's gay," I drone in explanation. Understanding fills his eyes. He puts his physics textbook down, and walks over to where Lauren is ranting about Nico in some European language.

"Lauren!" He snaps, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a slight shake. I wince, expecting her to throw him over her shoulder or something, but to my surprise, she just stares at Zach. "Hey, snap out of it!"

I'm pretty sure my jaw touches the floor as Lauren doesn't respond. She just sniffles one last time, before closing her eyes.

"You're right," She mutters. "He doesn't deserve to be cried over," She says bitterly. Even Joe and Ace have shocked looks on their faces. We've s[pent the last fifteen minutes trying to calm her down, and here Zach does it with a simple sentence. The world is so weird.

"Yeah, I am. Come on, let's go get something to drink at the coffee shop," He tells her, finally letting her shoulders go. She hesitates, before sighing and nodding. He grabs her hand, and leadsher to the door. They're gone quickly.

"Did you just-"

"Yup," Joella nods.

"And did he just-"

"Uh-huh," Acacia answers my un-finished question. The three of us stare in shock at the door, until I come to my senses. I snatch up Lauren's copy of the _House of Hades _that Joella got from Lauren, and put it in my backpack.

"Remind me to incinerate that book later," I mutter, rubbing my temples. "How the hell did Goode even manage to shut her up?"

"He's just that Good," Acacia whistles, earning a glare from me. She shrugs. "He is."

"It's not that," Joella scoffs. Acacia and I raise our eyebrows.

"Then what is it?" I ask warily. Joella raolls her eyes, before grinning like a cheshire cat.

"He likes her. Duh! And she likes him!"

"WHAT?" Man, if I was drinking something right now, Acacia would have been drenched. I laugh until my sides hurt. "Lauren? Liking a guy? Who's not a book character? Please."

"It's true," Joella rolls her eyes. "Just wait and see."

I roll my own eyes, before grabbing my script and flipping through it again. I have it memorized, but I just feel like I need to do something with my hands. I tap my metal shin, and wince when I do. It doesn't hurt, it just feels... weird. Strange. Foreign.

I feel a small hand slide over my own, and look up to see Acacia smiling at me sympathetically. She sighs slightly. "Austin, it doesn't change who you are," She speaks quietly, reading my mind as usual. I rub my temples.

"I know it's just..."

"Not what you wanted?" Acacia offers. I nod numbly. "So would you rather have aborted the mission, in order for your calf to heal?"

I sigh. "No, I couldn't do that. Especially not with everyone... gone," The word comes out like a choke. We really are alone right now. On one mission in an Africa when we were tracking diamond smugglers, we had to go off grid. It was just for a couple day, but I had never felt more alone. Suddenly, I was the grown up. And I don't care how good of an agent you are, no fifteen year old boy wants to be an adult.

Yet here I was, seventeen, and in charge once more. Only this isn't for a set number of days, a legnth of a mission. This time it's real, and they're actuaally gone. This time Uncle Ethan is relying on me, and not the other way aroun. I don't know when the power shifted, all I know is that it did, and now I'm responsible. If they die, it's going to be because I didn't get my team in there to rescue them in time. If they die, it's my fault.

"You know, I know she won't say anything, but Lauren is really grateful that you're up and running. Although she would never admit it, she misses her parents. Alot. And my dad..." Acacia trails off for a moment. She shakes her head to clear her thoughts. "Let's just say I'm glad you're functioning too."

I acutally look at my cousin. As she always does when we're at school, she's dressed in girly clothes and is wearing her contacts, her fire red hair styled to perfection. But beneath all that I can still see her, my sports loving cousin. Except this time, I looker deeper. Past all that. And for the first time ever, I see jjust how worn out and tired she is.

I know that if I look at Lauren, or even Joella, they would have the same look. They all have too much pride to let it show, but I can see it. They're sixteen year old teenaged girls. Their biggest worry should be getting a boyfriend and what color nail polish looks best with their eyes. Not whether or not half of their family is going to live because the world is in the palm of our hands.

And right there I resolve to do my utmost to make sure that everything turns out fine. Because whether it's convenient for the idiots who are behind all of this or not, my cousins aren't going down without having their first kiss. Because that's just wrong. They deserved to be that was when he got his idea.

"Hey Acacia?"

"Yeah?" His cousin looked up warily.

"Can you promise me something?" He asked straight how. She raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Depends," She sat up, eyeing him.

Austin chuckled slightly. "I was just thinking, that by the time all of this calms down, what if we all came to the Winter Dance? Just for fun. It's in Three weeks anyways," I tell her. The school didn't do the greatest job planning the events, as they wanteed to show the play at the fall ball, so they held it in the middle of November. Yet, the annual Winter dance is always the evening before winter break, leaving just over a three week gap between them.

"Dance?" Acacia's eyebrows shot up. "What for?"

"That's just it," I admit. "for nothing. Just to be... normal. Teenagers. You know, that kind of stuff. Promise me we'll all come."

"Sure Austin," She says even though I can still hear her doubt. "Sure."

"Thanks," I smile widely. Suddenly the snd of the day bell goes off. Mrs. Gables walks to the center of the class.

"Attention students!" She hollers. "I want everyone here for six at latest since we're airing at seven. That gives you one hour!"

I pick up[ my script and dump into my backpack, as Acacia stands up. Joella comes over, the stares of hypnotized boys in her wake. Hey, that would be a good line for a song...

"Dez is ready at the Hale," Joella whispers to us. I stiffen but nod. As the girls make their way out, I spot Connor among the fray. I walk up to him, and pull him aside.

"Hey man, ready for tonight?" He smiles at me. I give him a tight lipped smile back.

"That's what I came to talk to you about. I might be a bit late. Are you ready in case that happens?" I ask him. His eyes go wide, but he nods.

"Course man, I memorized my script."

"Great," I smile at him again. "See you tonight," _Hopefully, _I add in my head.

Joella and Acacia are waiting outside. It's already dark, and the air has a chill to it. I adjust my backpack so that it doesn't rest against my stitches. I wince, and Joella notices. She grabs my backpack before I can protest.

"You're going to be injurying yourself later for sure. Might as well not start it now," She tells me, shouldering it alongside her gucci purse. I roll my eyes, but don't complain.

The streets are fairly empty as we suspected they would be. When we arrive at the Hale, we walk past it, and to the gray minivan that's parked on a side street. I tap a set of knocks in, and the door swings open.

"So, why couldn't I have a normal van?" Dez asks me as the three of us climb into the crowded space. I roll my eyes.

"For the last time Dez, this is America, not Russia. A van would be too suspiscious," Lauren tells my best friend. I look over my shoulder to see her and Zach ready for action, dressed in black, their belts secured firmly around their waists. All signs of the girl from earlier are gone, as Lauren has put on her professional face. I internally sigh with relief, as Acacia tosses me my hat.

"So, everyone know their positions?" Her voice is as calculating as ever as she slides her belt into place. I watch as she deftly flicks several guns into their holsters. I slide on my toque, and the wool makes my scalp itch. It was my grandfather's lucky hat.

"Camera's are all in place, noactivity," Dez informs us. "Lauren and I managed to hack their systems as well, so we're in full control of the building."

"Doors included?" I ask as I pull my seamless gloves on.

"Even vent shafts," Lauren says. "You need to enter from the door on the south side of the exhibit, and the door on the East quarter will be your escape route. Re-covene here with us if all goes well."

"Got it," I say, clicking my own belt into place. I make sure all my leves are safely secured before I kick off my converse, and grab my stealth shoes. I check my watch, as the face flashes, 7:01.

"So, Lauren and Zach, you cover the front doors, knock out the night shift. Joella, you're taking the back entrance on your own, correct?" I ask my blonde cousin. She nods as she pulls her springy blonde curls into a high pony. Her mouth is full of bobby pins. "And Ace is with me."

Dez types several things into a keyboard quickly before turning to us. "We're good."

I nod. "Let's go steal a painting."

The five of us melt quickly into the shadows as we step out of the van. Lauren and Zach turn right and head for the mouth of the alley way. I watch Joella sashay her way to the east end of the alley, where the workers doors are located. Acacia and I walk to the nearest dumpster.

I tap my ear, and immediately my comm sparks to life. As I croush in the stench of the dumpster, I feel the black of the wall, until my fingertips meet with a grate. Acacia finds the other end, and we share a look. Flipping out our switchblades, we un-screw the vent cover.

"Alright, this is The Mediator, checking in," Dez's voice fills my ear.

"Duchess is good to go," Joella says from somewhere.

"Sherlock and Spy are headed to the front desk," Lauren tells us. Behind me I hear Acacia check in.

"Ace is good."

I take a deep breath, before activating my mic. "Boss is on. From here on out, you're on your own. Good luck to everyone," I say, before clicking my mic back off. Alright, it wasn't my greatest motivational speech, but come on. I'm under pressure.

"Take the lead Boss," Acacia's voice is low over the calm. I roll my eyes, but oblige and crawl into the vent. I pull myself along army crawl style, and I hear Acacia come in behind me, pulling the grate back on. We slither on our bellies in the darkness.

I blink, and my contacts turn night vision. I pull my way along, taking deep breaths so as not to get cholosterphobic. The opening titale of the play would probably be going on right now.

My metal shin bangs against the grate, making the slightest dull throb noise run through the shaft. I wince, and Acacia hisses for me to watch it. I shift and make a conscious effort not to make anymore noise.

After however many meters, we drop down from another shaft. I stare at the grate beneath me, and I hear Dez clacking away at a keyboard over the comm. "And motion sensors are down in, three, two, one." I hear Dez in my ear. Suddenly it drops out from beneath me and Acacia.

My stomach plunges, as I squeeze my eyes shut, I curl into a ball, and bend my knees to absorb the impact. Air rushes past me, nearly blowing my hat off, I land with a quiet thud and roll behind a statue. Acacia follows suite.

As I readjust my toque, I take in my surroundings and realize that I'm in the Michelangelo section again. Acacia and I make our way quietly past The David and towards the Vermeer's.

Everything is still, as though it's frozen in time, and it's freaking me out. The walls of the Hale seem to go on forever, looming threateningly. I can't help but gulp as I make my way through the sections. Dez's voice fills my ear.

"Boss, we might have a slight problem."

"What?" I grind to a halt, Acacia bumping into me. She scowls, and I start moving again. "What kind of problem exactly?"

"Well, i seems that the Vermeer has another set of motion sensors that I can't hack. And they are some pretty intense stuff," His voice fills with awe, which informs me that we're screwed.

"What's the ratio?" Acacia butts into the conversation. I hear Dez sigh.

"About two inches per second," He tells us after a moment. "Not bad, but it's still pushing us pretty close. Nightly rounds will be doing a sweep in ten minutes, which means you need to be in and out by then," He tells us as we reach the Vermeer section.

I open the door slowly, and walk until I'm an arms reach away from the painting.

"The field starts there Austin. Remeber you, I need you to manually de-activate the pressure sensors before you remove the painting," Dez directs me as I grab my tube of grey paste from my belt. I take a deep breath, before I slowly reach towards the painting.

Time seems to slow dowsn as I carefully move inch by inch closer. I gulp, careful not to breath to fast. "Steady," My cousin warns in a low voice. I want to snipe back at her, but I'm too scared of loosing my concentration.

After what seems like a millenia, my fingers brush over the edge of the painting. Dez turned the temperature settings off, so it's just the pressure setttings that I need to be wary of. I squeeze the bottle sowly, until a drop of grey glue glistens at the top of the bottle. Carefully placing it on the corner of the painting by the sensor, I begin to move to the second one.

"And the nanos are activated," Dez says into my comm. "The second sensor is on the opposite corner. Once that's covered, you should be good."

"Scratch the good guy," Lauren's voice comes through in heavy pants. "Spy is down, he might have some major head damage. I managed to subdue the guard, but I need to get Spy out of here. Now."

"Get him to Dez, we're almost done," Acacia answers. I feel sweat bead on the nape of my neck, and I have to ignore my initial tendency to swat it away. I carefully lob another batch of nanos on the last sensor.

"And..." Dez draws out the word. "They're off. You can move now."

My hand drops like a piece of lead as I replace my nanos. "Hurry up, we only have about sixty seconds," Acacia hisses. I grab the ornately carved edges of the paintings frame, and heave it up. It's a lot heavier than I expected, and i grunt against the weight.

"Vermeer in tow," I mutter, shifting the weight so that it rests on my good leg. "We're heading out."

We're almost to the East door. Literally only several steps away. I thought we had made it, untilI feel a cold piece of metal press against my throat. I freeze, as does Acacia.

"I'm sorry, but I need that painting," A familiar voice hisses. And at that fracture of a second several things happen.

My eyes shut tight as an explosion rips itself from somehwere across the street. The noise richochets through my ears. I hear Lauren shout something through the calms, as Acacia tugs on my arm. Joella starts cursing in german. The knife retracts from my throat quickly, and I turn around, and meet a familiar pair of wide brown eyes.

Her eyes crinkle in confusion.

"Austin?" Ally asks me.

**Alright, that was a pretty predictable ending. But we're finally getting into the action of this story which will include Auslly! It just took quite the build up. Sorry about that. And sorry for the update wait, I'm kind of loosing interest in this story. Anyways, please review and thank you for your support!**


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